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So I am part way through my application (yes I was an idiot and used a immigration company) we are just waiting for my partners skills assessment to go through (he is a tradie). We did have my sister lined up to look after our dog and two cats for a maximum for 6 months why we got set up (when we eventually get there) but now she is pregnant and doesn't want the animals in her house, she was only helping because I made her feel guilty about how many times I helped her out when her dog was poorly with numerous lifts to the vet and looking after him when she was at work. Our other family members can't/won't help, at all, and now I'm panicking because bringing them with us when we go is not possible, we need time to get set up before they come over. Has anyone used a fostering agency for animals to bridge the gap? Did you use someone else? How did it go? How stressful was it for your animals? It's getting to the point where I'm actually debating rehoming them now so that I know they are settled before we leave (for context here I have no children and these animals are that replacement for me), do we not move to because i can not find anyone to help? Do I split them up with other people and pray they all stick to the vets appointments etc? Not looking for a 'this is what you should do' response but looking for a little advice, if anyone has any Thanks

Hi, Can anyone please help me with any information regarding where to start with the planning of flying my cat home with me to England? I am not sure what immunisations are needed either. It's the one item on my list that is stressing me senseless. I truly cannot leave my furkid behind and I am worried about putting him through any unessacary stress. Any information would be gratefully received. Thanks in advance, Clair

Hey guys, hope everyone is well and to anyone affected by Covid our thoughts are with you all. I used to be a member of this site back in 2010 ish, we moved to Oz in 2014 and not needed to log in until now. I have since completely forgot my login details so I created a new account. This was BY FAR the best resource tool for us when we was going through the stages back in 2009 when we began our search down the rabbit hole. We now have a podcast here in Perth, WA called Expats 'n' Cork Hats. We are on iTunes, Spotify, Google podcasts and all the others too. If you want to be a guest on our show we would REALLY LOVE to have you on to discuss everything about your journey. You may be here in Oz wanting to go home, or you may be still in the UK thinking about coming here... Whatever your circumstances we would love to talk to you. We have done a few recordings now via Skype, it keeps it personal and intimate. We don't show the video, we just use it for the audio so don't worry, no one will see you. So, if you want to share your story to help or inspire others, please get in touch. Mark Rogers (One half of Expats 'n' Cork Hats).

Hi folks, I've been a lurker here for a while now and you're all so very helpful. We have a bit of time yet, as we're waiting until late August to move to Perth (bf has PR has til Nov to move. I will be applying defacto partner onshore). We have 2 cats we're bringing with us (aware of area regs and already planning to have them indoors plus cattio so they cannot roam) and we have a crazy schedule to juggle with us flying, cats flying, everyone in quarrantine etc. This means we have a relatively short time period to secure a rental we can take the cats to. The areas we are looking at so far are Freo or close to it (we want to be close to rail transport) or possibly Aubin (bf is undecided, I'm happy to be in both places so he gets to choose ). So I am asking you POI folks for some advice. Have you had a similar experience? Do you know a reputable housing agent that knows places that allow pets? Have you got a favourite agent that has dealt with you very well? Got any advice or info? Please help! We have started the process with petair, we are aware of local regs on moggies and will be responsible with them. We are aware it is trickier to find a place thst allows pets and we are in the fortunate position to offer 6 months or even a year in advance. We have looked into it and while we can stretch we would prefer to stay around the $500 to $550 a week max. It us just us two and the two cats, no kids. Ideally we want a house rather than an apartment 2bed min with some outdoor space (enough for a cattio and to have a barbie without wedging people into a tiny space meant for 2) and parking for 1 car off street. TIA Nix

Hello everyone! I am planning to take 2 flights with my two lovely cats. I did some research and Stefanplast Gulliver Touring carrier looks like a decent choice. It can even be split in two parts to give some personal space for each cat. It seems to be very big though. https://www.stefanplast.it/en-us/products/pet/pet-carriers/gulliver-touring/gulliver-touring-cm-80/gulliver-touring-cm-80 Our vet said that cats feel safer in smaller spaces, so now I am a bit worried this carrier is slightly too big. Has anyone ever transported 2 cats in our carrier before ? What’s the best way to do it? Cats live together and get along well. Thank you all!

Hi guys, Currently my wife & I are living along the Sussex coast and seriously wanting a better out door lifestyle in Aus. Should we be concerned about the natural distasters & danderous wildlife? Whilst Aus is so appealing after visiting it many times, we are so confused if it is the safest place to start a new and long chapter in our lives with the one aim to stay till the end! Our confusion lies where we will buy a property and re-locate our life... The East Coast (QLD) is best suited for our us but between fires in the hinterland, floods, earth quakes and subsequent Tsunami's along the coast, snakes, spiders in your garden or croc's or jellies harming / killing our pets... ever increasing heat, not to mention sharks in the water that we love to be active in and on! Maybe we've read to much into video clips of fires and floods etc but non the less they are still very real... Or Maybe we should just go for it and live life. We really want to know how YOU cope with all these hazards!! Anyway - cheers and thanks for any helpful replies! See ya soon! Keep safe! S&S

My family and I lived in Tasmania for around 8 years before moving back to the UK. We moved a lot during that time and I cannot remember how often we rented or bought the houses we lived in, I only know that we owned (and later sold) a house in Cygnet for a while. We are thinking of moving back to Tassie (possibly mainland but more likely Taz) and I wanted to know a bit about renting houses. My mum's friend in Taz mentioned that finding places to rent has gotten harder as more people are turning their places into Airbnb's and stuff or prices have increased - I can't quite remember. We will most likely be getting some help from our friend in Taz but I would appreciate it if anyone here living/renting in Tassie can give some insight about the renting situation, what areas are best for renting etc. and some tips. (FYI - there will be 3 of us and most likely 1 cat and 1 dog (we have 2 cats and 2 dogs however one of our cats and dogs are quite old and becoming slightly unwell so we are unsure whether or not they will be coming with us). I do believe that this will make finding somewhere to live harder as we will have pets, but we will try our best! Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thankyou! PS. If you happen to know anything about Australian education I would appreciate it if you checked out my other topic)

Hi All I'm new to this site and this is my first post, I've scrolled through some of the previous posts about cats, and gained some information, but I've still got some questions if anyone knows the answers or could advise that would be greatly appreciated. I have a male neutered Persian cat, who is almost 6 years old, he is indoors approximately 70% of the time and outdoors the rest but he doesn't go very far and always checks back every half hour to an hour. He's a giant softie and isn't confrontational towards other cats, or animals (he likes to relax with my rabbits). He is on a special diet (Royal Canin) for urinary problems, which is managed fine with diet. I was wondering if people have taken their cats to the Brisbane area, I'll be looking at the suburban area's not city. and how their cats have adapted, do you let them out? I've heard various things and I'm not sure what to believe, one side of people say "oh no you cannot let them out, because of snakes, spiders, ticks etc", and the others say " yes its fine mine lived to ripe old age etc." Also wondering if anyone else's cat has a special diet? as I've read you cannot bring food due to the laws etc. So was worrying about sourcing suitable food. Which transport companies would you recommend? And do you pick your pets up at Melbourne and then fly with them to Brisbane or just meet them at Brisbane after the quarantine period? Many Thanks

My husband and I are moving out to Australia at the end of January 2018 and we are taking our beloved pooch with us. We have chosen a travel company to fly her with but I am so nervous for her to fly and the idea of her being in her crate for over 24 hours scares me a little. I would love to hear some people's stories on there pets journey to Oz from the UK just to get more of an idea of the process the dog goes through and how you dogs got on after the flight and quarantine. Thanks in advance.

Hi, Looking for some advice in regards to transporting our cats from UK to Australia. Just wondering if anyone with some experience of this can advise the best time to send them, not sure whether to send them a week or so before we leave or leave it closer to our move date. Also, does anyone know how long are they in quarantine or does this depend on the pet? Our move date isn't for another couple of years due to commitments in UK, so just trying to get organised and do some research but couldn't seem to find this info on the airpets website. Any advice gratefully received. Thanks in advance

Hi We just got our permanent visas approved so now it’s very real! I’m really upset at the thought of leaving my cat behind when we go, I’ve looked into various companies to help with the move and waiting for a few quotes. But I’m concerned about the wildlife-cane toads, snakes, poisonous spiders etc. He is currently my spider catcher and does like to bring in a mouse or two, I’m concerned he might try to catch something that will end up killing him as he’s grown up being able to catch anything. Does anyone have experience of moving with a cat (particularly one which likes to have freedom outdoors) and if there has been any issues with wildlife?

Hi everyone I was wondering if anybody had flown a diabetic pet to Australia before and did they cope ok? I have spoke to some UK pet export companies and have had mixed advice. I know that the dog will not receive insulin for up to 24 hours and will also not have any food for this amount of time also. I know with diabetes, this amount of time with neither insulin or food can be lethal and lead to coma's and death. I would hate to put my boy through all the stress only for him to die scared and alone in the plane cargo. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. He is a 8 year old Chihuahua.

I know someone has posted this recently but I feel it needs to be made a sticky, there are lots of people who need to return to the UK and this is great news for them. I have attached the information from DEFRA, but briefly: Dogs/Cats now only have to wait 21 days from after the Rabies Blood Test No Blood Test for Dogs and Cats No Tick Treatment is required pb13582-bringing-pets-to-uk110706.pdf pb13582-bringing-pets-to-uk110706.pdf

Hi all, can an anyone possibly help? $50 to you :-) Dogtainers are shipping my dogs back from perth to Manchester in February but due to EU new law someone has to travel within 5 days. Unfortunatly we are already in the uk. The person would only need to email their details to dogtainers. They would be in no way responsible for the dogs what so ever. You can travel five days before or after not the same flight even please if anyone can help please I am totally stressed I want my babies home!!! Thanks in advance xxx

We are looking to ship back our medium sized dogs to the UK but are getting conflicting advice about rabies vaccinations and how long you have to wait. Do we have to wait 6 months or travel within 3 weeks? I noticed a thread that was started over 4 years ago and wondered if anyone can share their recent experience of shipping pets, please? Also if anyone can recommend a pet travelling company too, that would be great. Thank you

Hey everybody! First time poster here. I hope you can help me out. My girlfriend is an Aussie, and I'm an American. After 3 years of doing the long distance thing, we're working on getting me over to Australia. Now, the complication seems to be my two cats. Leaving them is not an option for me, and I'm trying to figure out what I'm looking at in the way of expenses. Has anyone moved a cat (or cat-sized dog) from the US to Australia? What was your experience? What were your costs per cat? My cats would be traveling from Orlando (MCO) to Melbourne (MEL). Alternatively, I could get them to Dallas, and they could travel from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Melbourne (MEL), if that would be easier or cheaper. My vet told me to expect to spend around $8,000 per cat, which seems terribly high. At this point, I have government Lodgement and Assessment fess figured at $730 for both cats combined, and quarantine fees (now only 10 days of quarantine required) figured at $3,434. That brings my total government/quarantine costs to $4,164 for both cats combined. Does that sound about right? Am I missing anything? Any idea how much plane tickets should cost? I know they are required to travel as cargo. Do you have any recommended carriers? Is there a good reason to use a Pet Agent? I'd like to avoid the expense, unless a Pet Agent is absolutely necessary. I know it might sound a bit crazy to spend this kind of money on cats, and that it would be cheaper to "replace" them. But they're simply irreplaceable, and I'd run into a burning building for either of these little guys. Thank you so much for your help! Any input is greatly appreciated! Tom

Hi - can't believe there's not been a thread on this one... What's the deal so far as taking dogs & pets generally back to UK - whether they were born in Auz or not???:wideeyed: Also any ideas on costs & procedures... Just in case! Thank you :spinny:

James Dean Residential presents this fresh, large four bedroom low set brick home family home in a great Wynnum location which has easy access to the Port of Brisbane, the Wynnum Central precinct as well as the Wynnum foreshore, local parks and schools. This property is very well presented and features: - Ceiling fans installed through-out. - A separate lounge with wood stove - Separate Dining area - Separate tiled family room with split system air conditioner - A tidy centrally located kitchen. - Built in robes in three bedrooms with an ensuite off the master bedroom. - Double lock up garage with remote control and internal access - Separate laundry area. - Fully security screened throughout - A covered entertaining area with built in BBQ. - Set on a 750m2 block with a fully fenced back yard which borders parkland and bush reserve. Amazing birdlife. - Pets may be considered upon application. Train Wynnum North (15 minute walk) Bus 223 and 224 on Constellation Way Tranport network 25 minute drive to city via Gateway Bridge 25-35 minute drive to city via Wynnum Road Airport - 18 minutes (plus DFO 24hr shopping) Schools Wynnum State School, Boxgrove Road Childcare Mother Duck, Tingal Road, Wynnum Montessori, Glenora Street, Wynnum Gundala kindergarten C&K Kindergartens x 3 in local area Wynnum Family Day Care Catchment area Rent and pets negotiable. www.jdre.com.au http://house.ksou.cn/rp.php?q=Wynnum&sta=qld&id=276886 Go through agent for viewing, available immediately due to break lease.

Hi All Its been a while since coming on here as 2 years ago just over I up sticks and moved to Perth, now after some time and a marriage breakdown I am looking at shipping myself and my 2 cats and dog back to Blighty. Wondered if anyone had any advice on shipping pets from Perth and what the general costs are ? I assume its going to be anywhere between $5/7k :arghh: God that's a frightening amount of money. Anyway also would love to know how people have settled back into life over there as I have been away from the UK for such a long time as before Perth I was living in Europe. Would love to hear what people think and any ideas to make the process smoother would certainly be very welcome. Hope to hear from you all soon.. enjoy the day guys wherever you are in the world :tongue:

Hi Everyone, We moved from the UK to OZ three years ago. As part of our move we transported out little pug. I have noticed some people on this forum looking for advice on pet transport so I thought I'd join and tell my experience. In the end I did the whole thing myself. I did all the paperwork, booked the flights (Japan Airways for pugs), bought the crate, booked the quarantine. In total it cost (with flight) around 2000 pounds. That was still a big saving on using a transport company and it was very successful. Little pug is sitting on the sofa in Melbourne with me now. Before I decided to do this I looked for quotes from transport companies. I ended up emailing Airsupply Shipping Agents (or Passports for pets). The owner and manager there told me completely incorrect information. He told me I couldn't transport a pug to Australia as Australia only accepted pets from Qantas and BA (not true he was muddled with Heathrow) and they do not fly pugs. I told him that wasn't right but that's fine I would get a quote elsewhere. He then became rude and abusive in his emails. calling me 'little girl' and telling me to 'go back to Australia':eek: (I am British). It was a bizarre email exchange ( I still have it, it was so weird) and I became very greatful I did not inflict a man like this upon my little pug. So a word of warning, they do not know their stuff and they are a very strange company. If your airline won't allow you to do it yourself (some won't) or you are not confident to try, my recommendation is avoid this lot!

I'll give you some background: My family and i moved to Australia, originally Perth WA, in February 2008. After 8 months of not getting work, being unhappy, paying huge rent there, we decided to move to the North West Coast of Tasmania. We have been here for about 4 years now. It's a beautiful state, but there are hardly any jobs and everything is expensive my family don't enjoy their jobs and i cannot find an apprenticeship - being a girl in Automotive makes everything a little more difficult as everyone over here is sexist as hell. We're doing well with money, we have two cars, a boat, a gorgeous house with panoramic ocean and mountain views, yet we find ourselves wanting to move back to the UK. My mum's family is back in the UK and we miss them a fair bit; perhaps that's what is instigating our move. But yea, i don't feel as though i have anything here; no mates, no job, no future here. I keep trying to remind myself of the state of the UK; the traffic, etc. but i still want to go back for good. i've never felt like we fit in here, based on the fact that we're english. We're going to need a 40ft container and we are taking our 4 year old Ragdoll cat, Zach, with us. Has anyone been feeling/have felt similar and moved back? We're just a bit lost and stressing out about the process. Nothing is set into concrete, but it is more likely than not that we'll move back. Any comments or opinions would be appreciated. Thanks.

We will move to Australia in Oct. 2012 and our beloved horses will come with us. Since I found it very difficult to gather information on this slightly exotic topic, I want to share my findings with everyone who is interested at PIO and the Internet. How to transport your horse or horses to OZ/ FAQ on horse transportation Formalities / Transportation / Vaccination and Health Requirements / Quarantine guidelines and rules based on current regulation 03/2012: 1. Your horse can only be transported to Australia from one the following countries: Japan, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, UK, USA 2. If your horse originally came from a country not on this list, it must have stayed in one of the authorized countries for approx. 180 days (variations exist depending on origin and export country) before starting of pre quarantine. 3. Horses can only be imported via Sydney airport where they have to stay in post quarantine for approx. 2 weeks (based on horses gender and agent procedures), so you have to arrange transport via landroute to your final destination afterwards. There are a couple of vendors which offer scheduled weekly land transports from Sydney to all major cities. Costs are aprox. 1000 AUD per horse. These are easy to find via google. 4. It is very important to have a valid EU horse passport with complete identification for every horse. Furthermore you need a vaccination pass, if this is not integrated in your EU horse passport 5. You horse has to spent approx. 14 - 28 days (depending on if it is a stallion, mare or gelding and on agent procedures) in pre-quarantine within an authorized quarantine stable in your home country. You can´t do it yourself :-( 6. Here you can find all the horse health requirements and pre + post quarantine + transportation procedures of AQIS, the relevant OZ goverment authority: http://apps.daff.gov.au/icon32/asp/ex_QueryResults.asp?Commodity=Live+horses&Area=All+Countries&EndUse=All+End+Uses 7. It is terrible to read, but the most important ones for horses in the EU are the test for Equine Infectious Anemia (Coggins) + Equine Piroplasmosis (B. Caballi, T. Equi) (ELISA or IFAT Test). I would do them upfront as soon as possible, as a positive result will rule out any transportation... :-( It is important to understand that your horse could have this disease and NOT show symptoms. The tests are approx. 100 € per horse and your VET can help you with them. The remaining procedures deal with rather standard health requirements and deal with the exact transport and transit procedures. This will all be handled by your transportation agent during pre and post-quarantine and during transport. 8. If you own a mare or a stallion or a young foal together with its mother, additional tests for sexually transferable diseases apply. These can also be found in the above document. Since we have geldings I did not bother reading them... As far as I can see a couple of further tests are neccessary in these cases. In the special case of a pregnant mare, she has to stay in quarantine until giving birth. 9. Furthermore you need to vaccinate your horse with the ProTeq Flu vaccine against Equine Influenca. The intervals for vaccination must be 100% matched from the beginning. The base vaccination (2 shots with interval) has to be done before the pre-quarantine starts. The horse has to be given an additional booster shot of this vaccine approx. 90 - 21 days before the pre quarantine period, no matter if it would be neccessary based on the normal intervals. It is VERY IMPORTANT not to take shortcuts on this vaccination, as this disease is the main reason for the strict OZ quarantine regulation for horses. If anything is not done by the book with this one, your horse will not be allowed to board its flight! How are horses transported? / What agents are there? / How do horses cope with flying? / Can my horse be put down during flight? / Can I visit my horse during quarantine? / Can I accompany my horse during flight? 1. Normally you will not be able to visit your horse during pre and post quarantine due to strict sanitation procedures. All agents offer full care based on your specifications for your horses during pre and post-quarantine and the actual transport. 2. Horses are transported in IATA pallets during flight and ground movement, which are similar to horse floats.There is a video showing how horses are shipped around the world: http://www.cavallo.de/videos/video/first-class-wenn-pferde-fliegen.290745.233219.htm It is in German, but should still be interesting to watch for everyone. I have also found a couple of pictures: http://www.cavallo.de/know-how/animal-lounge-frankfurt.288587.233219.htm 3. Horses normally cope well with flying, and all agents very rarely encounter problems. If they encounter them, horses are given a mild sedative and will be fine then. There are a lot of stories on the net that horses have to be put down during flight due to panic, but these are just rumours and there is nothing true about them. No need to worry! Even cases of colic are very rare and are avoided by feeding special feed before the flight. You also do not need to sign an authorization that agents are allowed to put down your horse in flight. These are dumb rumours as well. When you compare a horse float to a plane, the plane is actually much less noisy and far more stable than a standard float. Only the take off and landing is more stressfull. 4. Horses are transported on cargo flights and mixed cargo / passenger flights. Normally pilots take special care during take off and landing and choose very flat landing and starting vectors. Furthermore they try to fly routes with as little turbulence as possible in order to reduce stress for their live cargo. 5. Your horse will be accompanied by professional horse grooms during the flight. I have heard that some agents offer the possibility to take owners as grooms on horse flights. I have read that often these owners are very nervous and are not much of help... :-) We will fully trust our agent with this. 6. There are not many companies who specialize in International horse shipments to OZ. I know of the following ones for UK and Germany: IRT (International Racehorse Transport) http://www.irt.com Peden Bloodstock http://www.peden-bloodstock.com/ Guido Klatte International Equine Services http://www.gklatte.de/ Crispin Bennett International http://www.crispinbennett.com/ 7. Horses will be fed hay during flight and have access to water. Due to quarantine regulations you should only send the bare neccessities together with the horse. As far as I have understood these items will be destroyed at the end of quarantine. So you have to bring new ones when picking up your horse in Sydney. 8. Taking horse items: All other stuff such as tack and saddlery has to be cleaned (do not get me wrong on this one... cleaned means it has to look brandnew :-) ) and shipped with your other household goods. If customs / quarantine agents will encounter any fur or dirt on them, it will get very expensive as they will "professionally" clean them for you. I have read of charges exceeding 100 AUD per item. 9. GST / As long as you own the horses for more than 1 year before export, you will not be charged any import GST as they are regarded as personal belongings. 10. Insurance / You can insure your horses for quarantine risks and standard health issues / death. This will help if any horse on a consignment fails quarantine, in this case you will be covered for the additional quarantine costs until the consignment gets released (200 AUD per day) and standard vet costs if they get sick during quarantine. In the past if somthing like this happended quarantine clearance for the consignment partially took more than 8 weeks (over 11000 AUD additional cost!!!). So this insurance makes a lot of sense and is very affordable. 11. Our agent supplied us with a contact number of the Sydney quarantine grooms, so that we could call them if we wanted an update on our horses. They have been very nice and I trusted them 100%. Prices 1. The cost of transporting 1 horse to Australia is approx. 16K € / 13K GBP per horse. This price includes everything (pre-quarantine, post-quarantine, transport, all grooming activities, feed etc.). Keep in mind that 3 horses can share a container, which will bring down costs to approx. 14K per horse when you have 3 horses in an own container. Furthermore I would set aside approx. 500 € for tests and other stuff. I hope that all this information proves to be useful for you, it took me months and countless phonecalls to gather it :-) Wishing all horse owners the best of luck! CU all in OZ! UPDATE: Our horses have arrived in Sydney safely in October. Everything has worked out just as described above. They have both settled in rather easily and really enjoy the good weather. We had to clip one of them since he already had a full winter coat, but that is the only thing that did not work out to plan. :-) The whole experience of transporting our horses was really excellent and I would not be worried of doing it again! I have been asked how they cope with the heat and until now I have not noticed that they have been struggling. A lot of the more expensive Oz horses are actually imported from Europe (warm bloods) and they all seem to be doing fine as well. I also did some research on this topic and most of the sources claim that horses can adjust easily to temperature and normally feel fine in a large variety of climate zones. Nevertheless if you ship horses from EUR winter to OZ summer, I would make sure that they are clipped prior to boarding their flight and rugging them for the remainder of their time in EUR... :-)

has anybody got any info Re: removals back to the uk from OZ? I am looking for prices, recommendations of firms etc and If any body has gone it alone (without the use of removal companies) We also have 2 x dogs so any info would be helpful Thanks

Hi, We're emigrating to Brisbane in a couple of weeks time and still haven't found a home for our 2 cats. We've tried all the family and freind normal routes and thought that we would have the animal charities as a final last resort if it came to it, but have recently found that they are in a dire situation with overcrowding and they have 2 year waiting lists. We've now out posters up, tried facebook atc, but to no avail. We can't take them with us due to a) the cost and b) the rental situation we'll be in when we get to Brisbane. They are both 11 years old and very affectionate. Both house trained. If you can help, please let me know and pass on my post to anyone else you think may be interested. Thanks! Nicky

We have two air crates for sale. Suit small dogs 41cmx58cmx82cm. Meet all specifications. Originally supplied by Transfur when we brought our cavelier king charles spaniels over 2 years ago. $40 each or $70 for the pair. Pick up only in Brisbane.