Silver_Swan

5 minutes ago, Collie said:

A bit like your "where to live query", you won't get everything absolutely perfectly as you want it and need to compromise on something.

Several possible solutions have been suggested to you based on other people's experiences.

It's either wear the cost of a serviced apt/holiday let until your stuff arrives (10-12 weeks) and you've a place or rent furniture or buy cheap stuff 2nd hand temporarily.

When I returned in 2011, I initially stayed with a friend before finding my own place and renting the basics until my own stuff arrived.

Yeah we’ve not found a huge choice in serviced apartments so I think we’ve decided we’re going to try and secure our rental pretty much straight away and just get the absolute basics we need until our container arrives - hopefully it doesn’t take 6 months

4 hours ago, Marisawright said:

@Silver_Swan, this may have already occurred to you, but the other solution is to send your container off a couple of months before you fly.   Then you only need about a month in an AirBnB in Sydney (which you'll need anyway to give you time to find a long-term rental).  

That often works better, because you can manage to 'camp" in your home in the UK by keeping back old cutlery, crockery, pots, pans, camp beds etc that you can just throw away or take to the charity shop before you go. Or borrow stuff from family. 

Unfortunately we don’t have that luxury, the shipping container will be going as soon as the visa is approved (can’t go before) and they would like my husband to start work straight away! 

2 minutes ago, rammygirl said:

Seriously for an international move get the packing. Here is why.

they list the contents of each box (required by customs) so you know what is where

they wrap professionally, less breakage

they wrap furniture in special protective breathable wrap.  
they use boxes that tessellate and pack snug.

They unpack and remove oackaging at the other end

they dismantle and reassemble furniture if required.

insurance prefers it

They are fast, efficient and so totally worth it.

concentrate on de cluttering and sorting your stuff beforehand.  Organise rooms and be clear on what us to go/stay. 
 

We had never had removals pack for us before as only moved locally.  It is a different game entirely! There is enough stress and things to do, let them take the strain for not much more expense.

Thanks... although from all the reviews I'm reading they don't generally list the contents correctly, and people find things missing or packed in strange places.... as I mention in my previous post, a lot of our stuff is already boxed, feels annoying to be paying someone to pack it for us when it's already done, plus I just don't trust them!

5 minutes ago, Ausvisitor said:

Whenever we move (and we've done it a lot with work) we always get packing done for us.

We did it once took us 2 weeks and we hated it after the second day.

After that we always get them to do it, they can pack up our 4 bed 2 garage house in just under a day and load the container the next morning in about 2 hours.

We still pack a few "valuable/sentimental" boxes ourselves and they are happy with that

You'll find that self packing usually results in more damage (and so self packed insurance is higher) also things going missing is more likely a customs opening thing than a packing company 

To be honest most of our stuff is in boxes anyway - we've been abroad for two years travelling, came back and sorted what we wanted to keep and what we wanted to donate, and put the stuff we were keeping back into boxes. I'd prefer it if they just put those boxes as packed into the container. Almost the ideal thing for us would be a half pack - where they pack anything that could be broken, and we pack the rest (because "the rest" is already packed!)

We've also got a huge variance on volumes, one company told us our sofa was 150cuft on its own, even after I explained to them that it can be dismantled and flatpacked. So, just for fun we dismantled it and measured... being generous, it's 66cuft. Less than half their estimate. I'm good at tetris,  I severely hope whoever we pick to load the container is as well, otherwise I won't be impressed!

8 minutes ago, Ausvisitor said:

There are many direct sailings between the UK and Australia. What he meant to say was the shipping line they use no longer sails direct - it's probably true that if they don't go direct, Singapore makes a decent stop point

(Basically fill the ship 50/50 with stuff from UK going to Singapore and Australia. When you get to Singapore, offload the stuff for there and take on extra cargo going to Sydney)

If I had a choice I'd avoid the shippers that stop elsewhere, too much chance of your container ending up in the wrong country

Thanks, so far all have said it goes via Asia... any ideas on companies that go direct?

On 06/01/2020 at 01:40, PommyLyn said:

Silver_Swan 

like yourself I prefer to pack myself. You say you have a price from a shipping company direct. May I please have the name/ details for the company. Thank you. 
PommyLyn 

Hi, it's a company called 1st Move. However the initial fee they quoted doesn't include destination fees, and when you add those in it's the same price as having your stuff packed. I just like the idea of packing my own boxes, knowing exactly what is going inside what box, I've read lots of horror stories about how the valuable items just disappear, or how boxes are essentially thrown together with no thought, making them impossible to unpack properly.

On 07/01/2020 at 02:19, Captain Roberto said:

You could look somewhere like Forestville or Frenchs forest or Surrounds (Allambie Heights, Beacon Hill, Narraweena, Cromer) if you want to be nearer to work and also close enough to beaches. There's buses that go along Warringah Road towards Chatswood then loads of trains into North Syd.

Have a look o Google Maps - you can track the kind of places and get an idea. Once you cross the Roseville bridge (between Forestville and Roseville) it's not too far a drive to North Sydney or the harbour bridge (although there's a lot of traffic). And there's a lot of transport options on buses and trains from Chatswood.

 

Sydney is zoned up by the landscape, so you will find things like the harbour and areas of bush/national parks tend to carve up the landscape a bit. So there's not many eas ways to get east to west, and that can slow down the commute.

Vibes wise, there's quite a bit of difference between different areas, and there's a different feel nearer the beaches compared to the upper North Shore. It depends what you like, but you can't really be told by other people what will suit you. We lived on the upper north shore for 1 year when we first moved out, but found that we spent every weekend travelling to the beaches. So, after the 1st 12 months was up we just moved to the beaches! In hindsight it would have been better to just move to the beaches so it would be less disruptive for the kids. But hindsight is useful like that hey...

Further up the beaches (maybe from Collaroy onwards, and especially north of Mona vale) is a bit more of a hassle to commute to and out of most places and it's a little bit easier lower down. Lots of people love Freshwater but it's maybe a bit more expensive, but it does have a lot of good stuff going for it. It's more expensive by the beach, and a bit cheaper a little inland (Allambie Heights, Beacon Hill, Narraweena, Brookvale, Cromer etc) if that helps.

Thanks... having done a lot more searching online we've decided to focus on the hills area, although it doesn't hit our beach requirement, we realised we just couldn't afford the kind of property we wanted anywhere near the beach

38 minutes ago, Dorsetbrit said:

Sorry to jump in on this but we’re planning to go on the 1st September and not sure how long I should leave to start to organise this stuff. Also we might air B&B when we first get there so we can look at where we would want to live so will they hold it until your ready and know where you want it delivered to?

You don't need a lot of time, most have told us two weeks notice of when we want to go. Longer is better for them to plan (particularly shared container).

You need the visa approved for them to ship it, and they can store it in the UK or in Aus (for a fee of course) we've been quoted to ground floor door within 30km of Sydney. If we end up in a flat or a different city (which we won't because my husbands job is Sydney) then there's extra to pay. If you have somewhere to stay in the UK short-term the ideal thing is to send the container before you, we don't have that luxury, so I'm not sure what we'll do for the 2-3mths while we wait for it.

Just now, Abags said:

@Silver_Swan We are London to Sydney CBD.  Yep it makes sense for your size to have the 20ft completely.  

I would go back to them and say you are getting quotations from another company too.  I cant imagine the additional transport within the UK is that much.

 

 

We're only 50 minutes outside of London, arguably it's probably easier to get from here than anywhere central London down to Dover or Southampton...

I've got one more quote waiting to come back, then I'll start trying to negotiate, see what I can do!

58 minutes ago, Abags said:

Hello @Silver_Swan - as FYI we just got a quote from PSS for 20ft of £3895 door to door but for 844 cubic feet. Packing and unpacking though I also referred my father there so they have potentially knocked off a bit more. Insurance on top.  

Robinsons for us came in fairly more expensive.

They charge based on the cubic foot FYI. 

We ended up going with PSS 40ft 844 cubic feet plus our car for £4997.  My parents quote for 40ft 2100 cubic feet (so no car and the full 40ft used for household goods) was £6124.  

Their packers were very good, efficient and friendly.  We drop off the car next week and then the container will get sent off - no complaints so far.  

Thanks! We have a similar amount - 750 cubic feet, they said it wasn’t any cheaper for us to share a container and we might as well just have the whole container. I looked back at the quote and it’s actually £4300 - so ~£500 more than yours! Not sure if they add extra for location in the UK? Are you going to Sydney? 

I've now had a quote from a shipping company directly, and it's half the price. But I'm totally clear on whether I'm comparing like for like or if the removals companies include other extras!

34 minutes ago, Quoll said:

We’ve just used a MoveCube - packed all our boxes and packed them all into the move cube. Worked really well.

Thank - move cube I don’t think is enough space for us - we’d rather have a container and know we have space 

Has anyone ever self packed? which company did you use? 
 

The more I think about it the more I think I’d prefer to pack my own stuff. I’ve never had removals before, and I like knowing exactly what I’ve packed where, plus it means we can sort out as we pack.

Obviously the big companies want to sell you the packing service as well though...

2 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Like Collie says, negotiate.  

Another thing to consider:  if they're just paying you an allowance, could you rethink the container idea?   Perhaps ship a large Movecube instead, and leave the big furniture behind?   

For instance, if you don't ship the beds and bedlinen, then you can buy new beds as soon as you find a home in Australia and at least you'll have somewhere to sleep.  Beds are a different size in Australia anyway, so if you do bring your beds and end up getting PR, you'll be in for a lifetime of sheets that don't quite fit!  

You'll probably want to buy an outdoor table and chairs anyway, so buy that and use it as your dining table for the short term. And it's surprising how well you can manage in the kitchen with just a few cheap pans and a cheap dinner set from Aldi.   In other words, treat it like camping.  

We considered it, but to be honest it's just so expensive to start from scratch again. We have some really nice, and pretty expensive furniture already which it seems silly to get rid of. And weirdly our bed sheets are already from an Aussie brand - they are about 2cm different, we don't notice at all!

8 hours ago, Marisawright said:

@Silver_Swan, you may already know this, but there is NO guaranteed pathway to PR after a 482.  It's just a possibility, subject to the employer being willing AND you being eligible.  

Years ago under the old 457, it used to be more certain.  However the rules change every year now, and we're seeing more and more people finding they're no longer eligible by the time they're ready to apply.   

As it sounds like you're burning your bridges in the UK and transporting your whole life to Oz, I'd suggest starting your own application for a 189 or 190 as soon as you arrive in Australia, rather than waiting till the end of the 482, to be on the safe side.

I’ve not been able to get any concrete answers about what the path to PR is on the 482... and for 189 and 190 I don’t think we’ll have enough points. We’ve decided to keep the house in the UK, and cross that bridge when we come to it! 

8 hours ago, Marisawright said:

In that case they should be paying for the temp accommodation 

They are giving us a lump sum towards relocation costs but that will just about cover container and flights, not accommodation as well. I’m happy to pay for it though - as we’d be paying accommodation in the UK regardless, but AirBnB works out crazy expensive for 2-3 months

2 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Google for executive rentals. Look at staying further out away from the tourist areas. Consider shipping your container earlier and “camping” in your current home or stay with relatives 

Thanks will check out executive rentals. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on which way you look at it) we're being sponsored and they want us out there as soon as visa is approved, so no option to stay with relatives this end.

58 minutes ago, rammygirl said:

Just make sure you are quoting like for like.  Is this door to door? Any extra for issues with access or high floors? All packing materials included? Packing and unpacking?dismantling and rebuilding furniture?  Also how fast is the shipping? Ask to see the intended ship and timings.  Cheaper quotes often use slower routes.  Which company do they use in Australia to handle the goods.

Also consider taking independent insurance, this is cheaper and just as goood.

Don’t forget the additional fees payable in Australia to clear customs.

Thank you - there's a few questions in there I haven't thought to ask...

The two I've had are door-to-door, including packing and unpacking and all materials. Extra to pay if we end up on a high floor in an apartment.

With regard to speed of shipping, both have said similar, but one company told me no direct sailings exist anymore between UK and Oz, and often they go via Singapore - I'm not sure if this is true or not?!

On 12/02/2018 at 03:16, Bcrich01 said:

Hi,

So after managing to sort out our one way travel insurance I now have the new problem of trying to insure an engagement ring in much the same way.

Our insurance doesn't cover high value items of that amount so I'm abit stumped.

Has anyone got any experience of this?

 

Cheers,

Ben

Hey Ben,

I know this post is very old now - but did you find anyone that would cover the ring?

I'm looking for the same, and can't find anything except for UK residents.

Thanks

Hey,

We're heading to Sydney and will need somewhere furnished to stay while waiting for our container to arrive, which should be about 3 months.

What do people do? Staying in an AirBnB for 3 months seems like a lot of money, but most rentals have a 6-month minimum...

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Hello,

We've had a couple of quotes - PSS and ReloUK both have come in at £4k for a 20ft container from UK (Hampshire) to Oz (Sydney).

Has anyone got lower prices from other movers?

Any idea if the prices are negotiable? One mover said we had a "really easy move" because we've got plenty of space compared to the amount we're taking and most stuff is already in boxes anyway.

Thanks!

9 hours ago, Collie said:

Hi there,

I think the right vibe for you is inner Sydney and probably inner west or eastern suburbs, although not great for north Sydney travel depending on where you are (2 trains).

The north shore is beautiful but very quiet.  North Sydney is ok during business hours but pretty quiet at night & weekends.  Crows nest has a bit of life to it and may be an option that direction or Neutral bay/Cremorne.  North of St Leonards is pretty much suburbia.  Manly has it's own vibe going on but awkward for North Sydney, better for the city with the ferries.

TBH, my recommendation would be Balmain/Rozelle, close to the city but has it's own village vibe going on.  Although a lot quieter than it used to be, still lots of good pubs, cafe's restaurants and has a really good community.  Close to the bay walk/run for a bit of exercise.  About 1/2 hour to Eastern suburbs beaches and to the airport also.

Easy access to the city via bus or ferry and your husband can commute to work by ferry to McMahon's point.  Commuting by ferry never gets old, only issue is that the journey is too short.   

I live in Perth now but lived in Sydney for over a decade, mostly in the Balmain/Rozelle/Drummoyne areas (so may be a bit biased)

Forgot about driving in Sydney, traffic is a nightmare as is parking but public transport in inner Sydney is quite good and ubers are cheapish.  I would recommend getting a motor bike or moped as it's an easy way to get around (can use the bus lanes and free parking) .

May want to re-consider your budget or requirements.  Why do you need/want 3-4 bedrooms and a garage for 2 cars for a couple?  If you live inner Sydney, you won't need 2 cars (or barely 1) as you will commute by public transport.  There are some great car share schemes in Sydney where you can rent a local car by the hour (About $6 ph) on an app.  Have a look at goget.com.au  A much better & cheaper option for occasional drivers.

You should get a nice 2 bed apartment in Balmain for your budget, 3 at a push.  check out domain.com.au for a browse.

Feel free to pm if you want more info, I know Balmain pretty well.

Thank you! I will check out these areas...

My husband will likely have to drive quite a bit since his job will be visiting lots of different areas. Moped sounds great - but we don't have a bike license!

In terms of our requirements well the garage isn't for cars, its for our toys - bikes, surfboards, diving gear, climbing gear, camping gear, skiing gear, etc etc... and we'd like a small city car plus we intend to get a camper, hence wanting parking for two. And bedroom-wise we do a lot of work from home hence we'd like the 3rd bedroom to use as a study. We're used to living in a large 4-bed house with study, I don't think we're quite ready to downsize to a 2 bed!

On 12/10/2019 at 02:11, NickyNook said:

Will your husband get parking provided at his North Sydney office? 

If not, forget driving to work as parking is impossible so you should be looking at places handy for the train or other public transport to North Sydney. 

Try the top of the North Shore line - Wahroonga, Hornsby.  Though I suspect your budget is a bit low for a family-sized house around there. And you might need to review the 'modern' house requirement. How modern does it need to be? Newish houses are mostly many, many miles from the city - and not in the direction of the surf beaches. If you really want a new house, check out the Hills District.

 

Yeah he has parking at his office - although we're open to travelling by public transport as well.

I'll take a look at those areas... in terms of modern, I guess we'd like something that has a newish kitchen and bathroom and is brick built, not timber. Where is the 'hills district'?

11 hours ago, Quoll said:

Book holiday accommodation for a month then take your time with the eyeball test, visit local coffee shops, drive around a bit and see what takes your fancy. Your vibe might not be anyone else's vibe. Doing it remotely is probably a recipe for disaster, you don't know about  the drunken orgies, the broken down holdens in the yard, the pooing pooches from afar but you soon get the gist if you go for a look.

Yes thats exactly our plan - we just wanted a shortlist so we can make sure our Airbnb is at least in an area we are considering...

19 hours ago, vickyplum said:

Are you in Aus or the UK at the moment?

Very hard to analyse "vibe" without checking out various areas first. Are you looking to secure a rental immediately or you have hotel/holiday accommodation to  start with?

We're in the UK at the moment, we'll use AirBnb to begin with - but wanted to narrow it down and book AirBnb in the place we 'think' is right - to try it out before committing.