99redballs

We were paying $200 a month for electricity,gas and water. I take it your $400 a week is for a house 20km out of Melbourne ? We looked at house contents in case of being robbed but we couldn't afford it it was $700 a year and that didn't even include being robbed. That was just in case of fire. I think ins depends on where you live, if your in a high fire risk area. Council tax is included in your rent. No tv licence to pay, but I'd rather pay that than watch the drivel on Aussie tv! If your looking at living in Melbourne I would look for a house with a log burner as heating the house cost us $100 a month to heat. And we seldom used it as it was so expensive . If you have thick duvets and electric blankets and throws bring them all!


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On 5/11/2017 at 19:55, unzippy said:

How long ago was this 99redballs?

On 5/11/2017 at 22:40, crypticat said:

Hi Adele, 

Quote looks reasonable to me - we had a 40ft sole use in June 2015 Surrey to Melb for £6575.  Plus the FX rate has taken a pummelling since so looks like even more of a winner.  But alway, always negotiate!

The JM team were good although we did had a few damages on arrival and some missing items.  Insurance through Letton - thankfully!  There were some other issues with the unpack in Melbourne though which was pretty disappointing - mind you, different state and likely different crew so perhaps you won't have the same issues we did...

Its beeswax candles they worry about in customs but I guess a blanket ban is easier for the removalists to communicate and less likely to draw additional AQIS inspections (and $$$).  Plus, those containers do get hot when they're on the wharf and you don't need molten then resolidifed wax everywhere! We considered shipping some wicker baskets but decided against it for peace of mind.

Rushy

 

we came out in aug last year

oh and we were charged GST too, had to make a fuss to get that sorted.

we had a nightmare with our caravan importing it in. 

we used ship fromuk.com and paid to have it externally cleaned when it reached the port from our house . we paid to have it loaded onto a tailer from our house , but when they picked it up he came in a van with a tow ball, so it was towed down .

when the van finally reached brisbane it got held up in do to it having grass seed and silver birch seeds all over the top and round the leg braces, so they took my money but didn't clean it . so i have to pay a fee to clean it and to get the inspectors back out to inspect it.

Once released we applied for a unlicensed  vehicle permit at queenlands roads , as it took so long for the caravan to arrive and clear, we had been in brisbane for 2 1/2 months and could find work but hubby had ben offered a job in Melbourne so we had to tow it all the way down from sunshine coast to melbounre  in 5 days (never again) using very expensive UVP's all the time. by the time we had driven all that way in a short space of time (with no air con for most of it in 36c heat! as the compressor went) and living in the caravan for 2 months , we decided we had had enough of caravanning lol- plus we couldn't find a house with a driveway big enough to take a van and a car so we had to pay storage fees which we couldn't afford. so we managed to sell it 6 months later- not very quickly i might add.

we had a nightmare trying to get it all compliance. the electricians and gas fitters didn't know what needed to be done even though they had been advised that it was a caravan so they could have done their research. in the end , after several gas fitters and electricians we had the van certified and a chain fitted.

if we could have stayed on sunshine coast we could have got it all done in one place, however as soon as our caravan was freed we had to 'move on'

if you really wanted to take the risk put it in with your toiletries and cosmetics. they don't look at every box and its not even looked at a customs depot at the port , its all done whoever does the move in australia, they have to look at 20% of the boxes mainly picking out 'shoes' 'tools' marked ones, and in my experience they didn't even take anything out just opened up the boxes looked at the top items and taped it back up again. my guess is that this has been treated and it would be allowed. i spoke to the people that do this in australia and the stuff that i threw away would have been fine.

bring your good stuff and leave cheap stuff, or even put cheap stuff to the side if there's room. cheap kettles, toasters, knives and forks are the same price here as in uk. if youve got nice denby set ect bring those as you cant buy denby. ive found theres not a mega difference in price for white goods and the fridge freezers look nicer and cheaper than the one i bought in uk. plus theres the potential for it to get damaged i transit. 

if you can flat pack sideboards, darwers ect then do, as they push them onto two legs to wrap and they get damaged, also they will have a lot of weight from all the other boxes piled ontop of them.

if i was you i wo

uldnt listen to the reps that come out and quote and tell you what yo can and cant take. do your own research on gov sites and ask on here.

one old guy told me my table my get pulled as it had a small hole in it from a pin, he said they will think its wood worm and also it didnt look like it was treated. he was talking absolute rubbish, no way would they think it had wood worm-even if they bothered to look at it in Brisbane, and the wood was absolutely no problem passing. so the fact i was up one night til 2am sanding  it down and re vanishing two days before packing was a total waste of time.

yes you can take wooden articles and even wicker.

i was told i couldnt take candles, but i had read that they were fine so i argued with them and the removals men plastered in large letters "candles' all over the box. candles are no problem.

We used PSS and had  very bad service from  one of the removal men, so arrogant and rude. had me in tears and was very rude to my  daughter age 15.

they also told us NO aerosols, and left behind a cupboard full of stuff. most of items were broken or damaged due to bad packing. had to claim for over £4K worth of loss. removal man told us no need to transport brackets of washing machine, even though we said we have kept them and wont take 2mins to fit. when we got to OZ the machine was making a bad noise and had to be fixed!