TigerFeet

Thought this might be useful...

When our container arrived these are some of the items that were held back for inspection.

Pushbikes
Lawnmower and strimmer, both petrol
Some tools
Half of my kitchen ware (I had no kettle for a few days!)
All the christmas decorations
Dyson hoover

All the above items had been scrubbed and cleaned of any dirt, except the christmas stuff, which I expect they were looking for pine cones. No they didnt find any!! Kitchen stuff, have no idea why they held onto that, are they looking for food?

Everything came back and nothing needed to be treated, so no charge.

Best of luck!
TF

phoenixinoz

That's the thing with AQUIS, you can never be sure what they pull out.

The only thing they pulled out of ours was a plantpot which used to contain an artificial plant

The irony is that when we complained some of our stuff had been stolen, they waivered the decontamination fee and we got our plantpot back!!.....Still "contaminated"

Ummmmmm now why would that happen

spalen

So the trick is - when you label a Box as "Christmass Decorations' you need two boxes.


Inventory:

Box 1 = Christmass Decorations, Excluding Pine Cones.

Box 2 = Christmass Decorations, Including Pine Cones. (Empty)

And inside Box 2 you put a copy of the Aqis list of exclusions with ' You Dumb Asses I can read you know " written on it. And perhaps a sand-sculpture toy for good measure, or a bit of untreated pine might be nice, or perhaps even a hamster cage with the door ajar and signs of a hamster having been recently in residence. they'll shut the port down and declare a hamster exclusion zone for 50 miles around. Even better... put photo's of hamsters in the box too, a male hamster and a female hamster, and make the female hamster a pregnant one.

phoenixinoz

PMSL

Are you bored

aussiesoon

Nothing from our container was pulled out, however I have heard of another family whose Beanie Babies were confiscated. Mind you, we had some in our boxes and they were okay. It really seems like the luck of the draw.

coxfamuk

:scared: My daughter has over 60 beanie babies - she will be devastated if they got confiscated (come to think of it, so will I at £4 minimum a pop!!)

Lindsay Clan

We had nothing held back, but they did check a couple of things which puzzled us like a guitar and amplifier??? There were yellow/black labels on a few things to say that they had passed inspection, so I suppose it's luck of the draw.

Lorraine

diddy

The only box of ours that they checked was the one with all of the Mrs shoes in it. Must have been the smell.

Paul.

NickyP

Our things are booked for delivery next week (they are at the port awaiting inspection at the moment) and we too have our daughter's beanie baby collection in there. She will be mortified if any of them disappear as this was her one big worry when we were deciding whether to bring the furniture or sell everything. Must admit though that apart form the grief can't say that I would miss them . I will let you know how we get on once our stuff arrives.
Nicky (counting down the days to being in a house with our own stuff around us again).

Wal10

As a guesstimate about 1/4 of our entire container got opened and checked and then rewrapped, or the boxes resealed.

We had horse equipment, which left the UK clean enough to eat your dinner off, and my husband's carpentry tools, just as clean. We gave away our lawn-mower and hoover before leaving the UK. But we were warned by the shippers that horse stuff and carpentry tools were like a magnet for AQIS inspectors.

Even though none of our stuff got sprayed by AQIS when they inspected, they still had a good rummage through loads of our stuff. Some things were not repackaged to the same standard as they had been before leaving the UK.

Two gripes in particular, we received a broken chainsaw with an important piece missing, and an almost new saddle (only been on my horse 20 times before I sold her ready to emigrate) which was squashed and buckled out of shape and now resembles a very old saddle.

Y.

Vic&jase

Yes, a very useful thread, will have to start thinking about all that soon.

Cheers, Vics xx

Bella Donna

We still haven't been reunited with our freight yet, but we know that AQIS removed two dog blankets and cleaned them, and they want to see the dog's grooming brush and the Native American artefacts (dream catchers and a mandala). Probably a fair cop on the blankets because despite washing, it was nigh on impossible to remove every single hair. Probably want the grooming brush for the same reason, and the dreamcatchers will be to check the feathers.

This seems to be the extent of their interest in us.

Sue

Pollyana

Don't panic over beanie babies, they are fine - someone was worried about them being confiscated because they were believed to contain beans. They don't, they contain a sort of polystyrene stuff, and are fperfectly safe .
The only soft toys you need to watch are old teddies which may be stuffed with straw. They are NOT OK, and I suggest if you have any, find a lovely UK family to adopt them, as if they are aged bears they would not survive fumigation.

TigerFeet

Also be aware, if you have your stuff professionally packed they will pack everything and I mean everything. One of my children left his best watch on the window sill and he didnt see it until we got to this side! When the boxes arrived all we could hear was the beeping as he had set his alarm to remind him when the Simpsons were on!! Bless! Almost 6weeks of beeping! Im surprised the battery lasted!!

Apologies, Im digressing!

Having said that I did everything I could to prevent this but kids will be kids!
I went around the house placing coloured post-its on everything indicating which things I wanted packing.

I also kept a bedroom which we placed all our cases/stuff we didnt want going in the container and informed the packers they didnt need to go in there...also placed a post-it.

Dont take for granted your packers are aware of what is/isnt 'permitted' in Oz. The main gaffer prob will but his lads may not.

Hope all goes well,

TF

Vic&jase

If yours is anything like mine (Shoe factory)then I am surprised you got the box back this year!!

Jase