Canbush

Hi Cal Thanks for the comment. That was indeed my only reason for recommending getting vaccinated before leaving. We’ve been back 10 weeks now and had our second vaccination pretty much to our original UK schedule a couple of weeks ago. It certainly was more cumbersome to sort out than the efficiency of the NHS system in the UK, but not really too much of a problem once we’d located how to register at a healthcare campus without having our Medicare cards. Medicare has proven the hardest thing to sort out. We started registration as soon as we got into Howard Springs mid-April, but it was 6 weeks before they sent our forms back asking us to sign them and resend. Unfortunately, they don’t yet have electronic signing so they need physical signing - not possible in Howard Springs with no printer, and not mentioned in the instructions or we would have waited until we finished quarantine. Everything else, from updating our Australian Tax Office registrations to converting my UK driving licence, has been straight forward. The only real problem we’ve hit is finding the house to rent we’d had on promise for 6 months was put up for sale the day we arrived in Albany - Profit before Promise sadly, but it has left us still relying on staying with friends and having to pay for everything we shipped being put into store. Rental market is hard work in WA, so being let down by someone who is a family member has been pretty hard to take. The trials of moving countries! If you do go through Howard Springs don’t worry if the bill doesn’t seem to come through quickly. We are still waiting to receive it. Pete

Hi Yes - finally made it! We were repatriated to Howard Springs on 13th April, then had a couple of days in Darwin to enjoy the first of the season's Mindl Beach markets, then got into Perth 2 weeks ago. Just to be absolutely safe before seeing elderly family here we then spent 10 more days self-isolating at a friends property in the Perth Hills. Very, very happy to be back at last. Now just beginning the long haul of job hunting so we can rebuild our finances after the last year of struggles. Completely recommend Howard Springs and DFAT flight. Brilliantly managed, and much happier going that route than ending up in a quarantine hotel as we originally were going to do. The flights from Darwin to Perth were discounted by Qantas as part of the repatriation deal - half price. We also got our International baggage allowance for the internal flight, so were able to carry 60KG between us as hold luggage which saved a fair bit. Similarly, PCR tests are included in the flight cost. The quarantine cost was A$5000 for the two of us, but they provide arrangements to pay it off at your own rate over 12 months which helps a lot. Howard Springs is about to transfer to the NT Governments management, but hopefully everything will stay the same - couldn't fault it, and loved the food! The problem with both Singapore and Qatar is the uncertainty. We got cancelled at 5 days notice by Singapore and having given back our tenancy faced having nowhere to live. There was no offer of alternative flights, even at a higher price. We subsequently found out they'd simply moved the flight day from a Tuesday to a Saturday, so I feel they should have given us first option on the new flight day. So I doubt I'll be using Singapore Airlines again unless I absolutely have to. We were so lucky to get a DFAT flight that left a week later than our bounced Singapore flight or we'd have been in real trouble finding somewhere to stay with the lockdown still in place. Best of luck getting home. Try and get your vaccine jabs all done beforehand - its a bit chaotic here at the moment and we still have our second jab to arrange. Pete

Hi. we only took up the DFAT offer when our commercials got cancelled and we were faced with becoming homeless in the UK. The flights cost us £1200 each, and then there is A$2500 each quarantine cost at Howard Springs, but you can spread the repayments over 12 months. Flights are only from London as far as I am aware. We were bound for Perth so very fortunate with the DFAT flights. With the WA cap just reduced to 500 per week I have no doubt we would have been bounced again from commercial flights. Pete

Vouchers are both gone now. Safe travels.

Back to two vouchers if you would still like them. Pete

Hi I still have one left if thats any use. pete

Sorry, just to clarify, I’m not after the original costs back - money has already gone and been written off in the £20k hole created by our long processes getting home. Happy if anyone wants to offer a few quid for these, but not looking for the voucher value.

I found the prices very variable from one supplier to another when I was looking. I checked ExpressTest out on the government approved testing labs and they seemed ok, so went ahead.

In case anyone is interested, we have two vouchers for PCR fitness to fly tests available with ExpressText - https://www.expresstest.co.uk/book-a-test/. We had arranged tests for our SingaporeAir flights that got bounced, then got repatriation flights instead. Qantas include testing in their flight costs so our ExpressTest ones are redundant. The company wouldn’t refund, but sent me two £80 vouchers instead. They are valid until next April and fully transferable, so I’m happy to offer them to anyone needing the tests done to get home and struggling like we were with the sheer costs of everything. Pete

Hi good thought. I’d prefer someone gets to use them than have them wasted. pete

In case anyone is interested, we have two vouchers for PCR fitness to fly tests available with ExpressText - https://www.expresstest.co.uk/book-a-test/. We had arranged tests for our SingaporeAir flights that got bounced, then got repatriation flights instead. Qantas include testing in their flight costs so our ExpressTest ones are redundant. The company wouldn’t refund, but sent me two £80 vouchers instead. They are valid until next April and fully transferable, so I’m happy to offer them to anyone needing tests done and struggling like we were with the sheer costs of everything. Pete

All good - safely tucked up in the Howard Springs quarantine centre. Looking forward to a few days in Darwin when we get out, then back home to Perth at last. Looking forward to being able to give family and friends a hug.

I do think we were just quick reacting to the offer email coming in, unless they're changed the system a lot since we first registered last October. That said, we certainly were in a hole as we had everything shipped two weeks before our original flight and our temporary accommodation was due to come to an end. As it happens, I had arranged to have a few days extension of the tenancy just in case we hit a problem on the 7th April, and the DFAT flight dovetailed in perfectly. If I hadn't done this as a precaution, we would have been in serious trouble with where to stay from 12th April given the lockdown still in place and holiday cottages/airbnb's booked solid for spring school holidays. None of our UK friends or my family were in a position to help, not least because they all had vulnerable adults they naturally wanted to protect. We are at the age where sofa surfing isn't so easy :-). We also already have a house to rent in Australia so we need to get there without too much of a delay so as not to jeopardise that - not good with the rental market in Oz being so tight. We're very lucky to have somewhere already lined up and not having to house hunt when we get there. At the moment I am seriously stressed out for our PCR Test being negative on Saturday. No reason why it shouldn't be as we've had a round of vaccination at the beginning of March and have kept well isolated, but after a while you just get completely paranoid that something will go wrong! All the best for your own trip.

Very much the same with us. Having been bounced once, and with the impending prospect of being homeless by the end of April, we updated our DFAT and were lucky to get a repatriation flight offer two days later (probably coincidence). We’d previously not tried for the flights as we had commercial flights booked since October and felt there were people with more need of them than us, but that changed when we got bounced with all our belongings enroute to Fremantle. Assuming a negative Covid test on Saturday we fly for Darwin next Monday. Like so many others, going through the stress and expense of the last few months has been crippling, but we finally have a sense we are almost home!

Very interesting- thanks for posting. I can see why they cancelled our 7th April Wednesday flight, but i am annoyed that they didn’t offer to transfer us to the Saturday flight they introduced instead. Hard not to think that it was because we had cheap advance purchase economy tickets !

The £1500 was for the two of us. Brought our tickets up to full economy of about £1350 each. if you have that image I’d be interested in seeing it. We aren’t facebook or Twitter users.

Just to update on LHR to Perth via Singapore Airlines. Having just been bounced from our original Wednesday departure we’ve worked out the same plane flights are just the Friday departures. Places going fast, and from May onwards for premium fares

Frustratingly, we just got bounced on a SingAir flight from London to Perth. Even though we were told 6 weeks ago our flight on April 7th would be one of the same plane services to transit singapore, apparently now its not. Managed to rebook for 7th May, but cost an extra £1500. Now we have the nightmare of finding somewhere to live for a month as everything ships on the 29th March and our tenancy finishes on the 6th April. nothing we can do about it but hope the 7th May doesn’t get blown away as well.