jonstp

As far as I know the mandatory unpack is new, even the shipping agent handling the paperwork did not know about it. I would also add that I have brought in 20' containers full of personal effects before 1987 and 2006 (that included declared timber) and not a drama, open the doors, fumigate, stick on truck, bye. This time was not the case......

No, if self packed you can only insure for total loss.

For those considering shipping personal effects to Oz. Here is our recent experience. I recently bought a 20' shipping container, loaded all my stuff into it, tools, antiques, etc and shipped to Oz. Got a price of £1800 for the shipping cost. All got picked up and off it went. I took a long holiday in Asia over christmas and then arrived at about the same time the boat. Then the nightmare began. All effects into Australia, now have a mandatory unpack in a customs bonded warehouse. Which in itself is not a problem if you know that and had it all palletised before hand. I declared I had timber in the container, please fumigate container on arrival. Ohhhh no. you can't do that, you have to pay for customs inspection, unpack the container, fumigate offending items, repack. Again this would be ok if you could do it yourself. No. you have to watch a bunch of ***** tip your life out onto warehouse floor, kick it about and then in my case, pack heavy tools on top of fragile antiques. About 3 customs and quarantine inspection fees later, torrents of abuse for not having stuff palletised.... I got a bill for $7500 for customs clearance and labour etc etc. and if that wasn't bad enough they then confiscated two antique daggers worth $6000. Anything with a blade longer than 40cm they take, excepting kitchen knives. The fact that one dagger was decorative and had an unsharpened blade was of no consequence. Damage to antiques was high. Not a single piece was undamaged. Fortunately, I know how to repair them so it will be just my time.. but that is not the point All up given the cost of new container, trucking, shipping, fees. Total cost was £12,000. Yes it was worth it but only because I had a few high value items. My advice to anyone thinking about moving would be only ship high value items and palletise everything. You will probably have to do it yourself i.e. load boxes onto pallets and cling wrap the boxes to pallet but totally worth it. If I had known then cost would have been $5000 less.