princessoz

Hi Dan, Tricky one deciding when to ship as obviously you’re going to be without your belongings for quite some time at one end or the other. We had the packers in on 22nd and 23rd of May and our container departed Oz on 30th May. It arrived into port in the UK on 12th July and was delivered to our house 3rd August (we had rented our house out whilst being in Oz so moved back in). From the 23rd of May we stayed in an Air BnB for a couple of weeks in Oz so that we could clean our rental house and hand it back to the agent and get our bond back in full and tie up any other loose ends. We then left Oz and went to New Zealand for just over a month. When we arrived back in the UK we stayed with family until the container was delivered. We don’t have children so it was just the two of us to think about so we could be pretty flexible with our plans. My husband and I had been in Oz just over five years before returning and have settled back in the UK with no problems what so ever. Still see all our friends that we saw before we left, just slotted straight back in with them all. My husband works in IT and as soon as he put his CV out to agents was inundated with job interview offers, he ended up taking the first job that he applied for which is within walking distance to home so he is very pleased with that, cuts down about 2 hours commuting which he did every day working in Brisbane. Both of us have no regrets what so ever moving back to the UK, for us it was the right move and we are enjoying being back with family and friends and being out and about exploring the beautiful countryside.

Hi wattsy1982, We shipped a 20ft container back to the UK in May last year with OSS and I couldn't really fault the service, if I had any slight niggle with the Brisbane office I felt they could have perhaps been a bit more forthcoming with information on a couple of occasions but to be honest I think when you are making such a big move you have to be proactive and be on the ball chasing them up if you have not heard from them. Saying that whenever we called them they would always call back as promised, as I said it was only a very slight niggle! Once they confirmed our packing date this was the date they came out to us. The packing team we were given were fantastic, absolutely no complaints with them. Three guys came out on the first day and two on the second day when they also loaded the container. You can't keep an eye on them all the time as to what they are doing as they move so quickly through the house so you always hope that they pack everything adequately and I was really pleased that we had no damaged items on receipt and was amazed when opening boxes up just how well they had packed everything. I checked out reviews for them online as well when deciding who to use and the Brisbane office always got good reviews (some other shipping companies got good reviews but when you drilled down and looked at the actual review for the branch that would be doing your uplift (Brisbane in our case) some of the reviews weren't always favourable). https://www.productreview.com.au/p/oss-world-wide-movers.html?pr_front_review_filter[office_location]=QLD%2C+Brisbane&rating=&sort=&filter_action=filter The sales guy who came out to us to quote was Craig Mills and out of the two companies we had out to quote we felt reassured that we would get a good service from OSS as he was able to answer our questions confidently and was very knowledgeable. We went back to West Sussex and our container was unpacked by a local company called Oscars Removals and they were also brilliant. I would certainly use OSS again. Hope this helps.

Just ensure that whatever you store them in has a tight seal and cockroaches can't get in. We left books in the packing boxes that they were shipped in and put them in the garage for storage, needless to say when they were opened they were covered in cockroach poo and some of them were ruined and had to be disposed of (I did ask hubby if he needed to bring all his sci-fi books....!). Anything else we left in the garage we made sure that all the seals to the boxes were taped back down so there were no access points.

I agree with Snifter, if you have the room, i.e. you are shipping a container and will have space for them, then I would definitely ship your white goods back.

The price we paid with OSS was AUD 6,900.00 for sole use 20ft container. We took separate insurance out with Letton Percival for GBP 563.00.

We shipped a 20ft container recently from Brisbane to South East UK and used OSS World Wide Movers, the packing crew we had were excellent and none of our belongings were damaged.

Thank you for your reply. Yes, will definitely have to look at the insurance side before deciding on going with self pack. We used Letton Percival on the way out who were very good as we did have to make a claim for a few damaged items and they were very quick at settling it but that was for the shipping company doing all the packing.

Thank you pommysheila.

Thank you Martinbjulieb, hope everything goes well with your move.

Thank you srg73.

Hi all, We are looking to move back to the UK around June this year. We have started to research shipping companies for the sole use of a 20ft container from Brisbane to South East UK (Sussex area). Does anyone have any recommendations for shipping companies going back to the UK, we are particularly interested in packing most of our boxes ourselves (we have moved so many times since being here that I am confident we can do this part ourselves) but would need the removalists to safely pack our larger items. If anyone has any experience of this I’d love to hear who you used and your experience. I did a search and saw the very helpful post from vinnie3004 recommending Chess – has anyone else used them? Many thanks.

Don't look at it as taking the grandchildren away for nothing, look at it that you have had an adventure as a family and your children have lived in another country which is a great experience for them to have had. I've been here 4 years and I although I love Australia and the wildlife and the fantastic scenery I know that we will be making the move back to the UK in the not too distant future. At this particular time in my life I know the UK suits me best but I also know that later in life I may return. All the best on telling your parents, I am sure they will be thrilled.

Yes it was recent, we got back from the UK at the end of July and had our test the first week of August. We initially had our test booked for the last week of June and we went along to it but unfortunately we had the incorrect birth certificate (need a long birth certificate which shows your parents on it) so they were unable to proceed with our application but they rebooked us to go back the first week in August with the correct documents. I knew at this stage that I might have to return to the UK as a family member was ill so I asked them if there was a problem with leaving the country before coming back to take our test in August and they said there was no problem at all with it.

Hi Joanna, After applying online for my citizenship I had to return to the UK suddenly before my test/interview date which wasn't a problem (I already knew the date for my test and arrived back in Oz the week before). After you have sat the test, should you wish to leave the country before the citizenship ceremony they suggest you call and inform them.

Thanks for the reply Johndoe. It's good to hear how you capture your amazing images, I love how vivid and clear the pictures are.

Hi Johndoe, They are really great pictures that you have taken. If you don't mind me asking, what camera do you have?

Agree with NickyNook with regards to waiting until September for better fares. We prefer to fly with Singapore Airlines and are members of their Krisflyer program to collect the air miles. We have just this week returned from visiting the UK and the tickets for this we booked in September last year after receiving their Europe Early Bird fare promotion email. For two adults we paid a total of AUD 3,500.00.

Hi Mrs A, Having literally just moved in to a new rental I know how frustrating looking for one can be. I kept a very close eye on realestate.com.au and when I saw a house I wanted to view I phoned the agent to register my interest. On realestate you can also view which houses have inspection days already arranged so I popped along to some of them. In the end, as we knew the specific area that we wanted to rent in, we went into the local rental agents and introduced ourselves and asked if they had any properties coming up that fitted our requirements and it just so happened that a house they had coming on suited us down to the ground and we have just moved in. As you don't have long until your rental finishes, I would phone the agents for the houses you are interested in. I would also obtain their application form and complete it and have all the relevant information needed ahead of an inspection day so if I saw the house and was interested I could hand the application in then and there before anyone else could apply. I think with rentals over here that there are so many people looking to rent that the agents know the houses will always go so I think you have to be on the ball with them and keep on their case as they won't always come back to you. Best of luck!

Hi Danielle, Don't know if this is of any help or even if these jobs are in your partner's area of expertise, but there are some based in Queensland under Engineering & Surveying. www.smartjobs.qld.gov.au All the best.

As Bobj mentioned above, check with Greyhound, you may be able to catch it all the way down from the Gold Coast. http://www.greyhound.com.au/ Alternatively, depending on budget, you could fly down from the Gold Coast to Sydney, look at Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin. On Virgin's home page they advertise a Happy Hour sale which they run every Thursday. This is the link to NSW trainlink which may help you if you can get to Sydney:- http://www.nswtrainlink.info/ Good luck!

Congratulations! That's great news and must be a weight off your mind. Enjoy your new home!

Hi ClezS When we were looking at rentals we put a pack together which we took along on the day of inspection and handed in straight away to the agent if we were interested in the property. This included the agent’s application form which we obtained prior to the inspection and completed. We also put together a letter introducing ourselves. My partner and I both did not have jobs when we obtained our first rental so we told them who we worked for in the UK, how long for and the positions we held. We also gave details of the funds we had and we enclosed copies of bank statements to back this up. We have rented our house out in the UK so we gave details of the income that this brought in and we also enclosed the advertising photos of our UK house so they could see that we kept our house in a nice condition. We also said as we are renting out our UK house we would treat any rental we had with respect and care, as we would hope our tenants in the UK are doing for our own house. As it was the two of us we also said that we were both non smokers without children and no pets. The way we looked at it is that they know nothing about us and we did not have any Australian references so we had to make our application stand out from the competition so we did this by including as much information as we could about ourselves. We did also say that we would be happy for the owner of the property to meet us if they wished. This worked for us as we have only applied for two rentals since we have arrived and we were lucky in securing both of them. Best of luck with your viewing this afternoon.

Hi guys, Hoping someone can answer a query I have. In the UK our holiday entitlement at work would start from the beginning of the year so after receiving your allocation in January you could immediately book holiday for any time of the year up to your maximum allowance, so for example in January you could book say a week off in February, two weeks in June and a week later in the year. If you left the company and had taken more holiday than what you had accrued they would deduct the amount from your final salary. My partner currently works in IT in Brisbane and is given a set amount of holiday days per year but has to accrue the holiday before he can take it. So in January when he is given 20 days he cannot book a week off in February for example as he has not accrued enough days holiday. This is the first job that my partner has had since we moved here so could anyone please advise if this is how it is done in Australia or if it is dependent on the company and how they work. Many thanks.