nowandthen

Thank you suesmalls! Wow, you are moving back after 48 years, that's amazing. You will see big changes I think but I bet you settle back as if you have never left. We are moving to Scotland, both origianally from there but have lived in Sydney for the last 10 years. We rent so it's been easy for us to sell our furniture. Must admit tho we have definitely sold things for a lot less than we had originally hoped to get. Still, it all adds up! Can't wait to sit on a couch again soon Good luck.

We are making the big move to the uk in 2 weeks with our newborn and toddler. The biggest piece of advice (if you are looking to sell most of your things) is start now. Especially if you have a car to sell. Gumtree is quite good. We are shipping some items such as cot, bed, drawers and clothes/toys. We have managed to live without most of our furniture for 6 weeks and like the others above, have made do for eg with our patio furniture as living furniture. We provided notice to our letting agent and have removalists arriving 4 days before departure, the cleaners arriving 3 days before and handing the keys in on the same day. This leaves us with 2 days before our flights allowing for any last minute items to address. We are staying in a serviced apartment for our last couple of days and will then be staying with family for a few weeks once we arrive in the UK. We are fortunate though to be able to borrow cots and and a double bed from my family until our shipping arrives and we have somewhere to rent. You could always look at gumtree UK for any items to buy cheaply, some items are even offered free. Also make check any notice requirements when cancelling bills. For eg internet provider requires 28 days. It's certainly not cheap to move overseas so we hope not to be doing it again anytime soon! good luck

Sorry to hear about your situation, it can't be easy. We recently applied for our two sons British passports as we are emigrating to the UK in November. It arrived alot quicker than expected. We sent them express post (2-4 days) to the UK passport office and received both passports back in 12 days, so less than 2 weeks. You can also send them courier which I think gets to the UK in 1-2 days. You also should consider that immigration in Australia may also question you if you don't have passports or visas for the children for their arrival in the UK. Good luck