May be we're just daft but this has turned out to be very expensive so I thought I'd share.

Anglo Pacific packed the house. We had an extra box and asked them for a price to airfreight for us which they did. Sent the box and went to collect today at Perth Airport only to be told that there were additional charges Firstly we had to pay $144 to Air Menzies. We then took a form to the customs and quarantine centre to be cleared. This was a further $55. The whole process took around 1 hour plus we also had the petrol from Kingsley to the Airport - Customs - Kingsley so a costly experience.

If we'd known about the extra costs on top of what AP had already charged us we may well not have airfreighted the extra box. Yes we could have checked a bit more but with everything else going on we just took them at their word.

We sent out some winter jumpers, a travel cot and some smaller personal bits. We were unable to collect on Friday when we arrived as everything was closed despite AP saying they were open 24 hours.

Further we just managed to deter the quarantine inspector from inspecting the cot - he thought it was wood and was about to charge a further $150 until we told him it was fabric and was able to show him a picture.

Am looking to avoid a similar experiance.

I already have an address in Aus to ship to so have sent most of my goods a couple of weeks ago.

Whats left is in two camps - stuff im taking and stuff to throw/charity.

I will ship about five boxes of things I want to take in the last week that im here.....shipping is 30-45/tea carton (£30 kg allowance) but 7-10 weeks.

Other than that Im looking at postage with the post office £23 for two kilos First class so thats within 7-10days if you go over 2 kilos the price hikes up.

Excess bagage with the airline is £40 per kilo.... I dont want any of that !!!!

Another tip is to travel by America - All airlines offer higher baggabe allowance than via Asia!!!

We used a really good independent air frieght company

http://www.independent-freight.com/

They collected our boxes - all 4 of them, wrapped them securely to a pallet, put us in touch with a good insurer (as we were shipping valuable items), kept in touch by email at all times and charged us around £100 per box all in. The warehouse man at Customs in Aus said he had never seen items so well packed.

Give these guys a try for airfreight - I've shipped two lots with them, quick and efficient and not extortionate.
http://www.wedelivertheworld.co.uk/