silly question probably, but do the customs physically empty your 20/40 ft container , check everything , then put it all back if youre doing it on a budget and were going to collect your belongings once they were cleared?

hi
i have had the packers in today and what they have advised (we have a 20 foot container) is that they will scan the list that goes with the shipping and pull what ever they want out and have alook, our agent advised us not to take the fridge freezer as they lob those out straight away, also hubby is a builder and he had to clean and paint his work tools so they were spotless as thats the sort of thing they will pull out and have a look at.
i think it is random checking anything they fell could be potentially harmful to aus.
hope this helps have had a hectic few days rounding up stuffand feel so glad that its all done and i dont have to think about it again

sam

Hi sam

Now I am a bit concern of shipping our refrigerator to Australia. We bought and used in Japan and now thinking to ship it with other stuffs but what exactly your agent recommended you and if we ship what problem we will probably face?

Thanks in advance
Sariman

We shipped a full 40 ft container to Fremantle which included a large fridge/freezer, didn't have any problems with it at all and it is now happily chilling the beers at home in Perth!

The only things we were pulled up on were a set of bongo drums (had to pay for the skins to come off) and they made us fork out to clean our (empty) cat carry cages!

Everything else sailed through including tools and African wood/stone carvings. We certainly didn't repaint the tools etc, just cleaned them roughly with that Jeyes fluid.

Hi there

Thanks for input. I am relieved now that we will hopefully have no problem as well.
Thanks again

I was surprised that the shippers don't just deliver you the container, they have removed all your bits and packed them onto a lorry most of the time, presumably to give them another chance to break more things? But maybe that is because they have already emptied it so both customs and quarantine can check stuff. We took a fridge and despite enclosing an email from the manufacturers about what it was made of it was one thing that the authorities insisted on inspecting along with my daughters bike.

I have recently sent alot of stuff via dhl, as im only young i havent accumulated
lots of stuff so i didnt need a container.Anyway, i packed all the gear and left for Austrailia, after arriving and getting semi sorted i got my girlfriend to ship my stuff.Due to her name on the dhl declaration i had to go to customs at the airport in Melbourne to clear my stuff.
I was asked alot of questions regarding what i had in the boxes i.e. 100kg :-) but it was all sweet, nice and friendly guys.Then i had to go across to quarantine and answer more questions.
They are generally interested in animals,animal fabric,food,wood etc.
If you want a list of what you cant bring get a declaration form from dhl as you must list all that stuff.

We were told by our agents that the entire container is emptied and placed on the floor of a bonded warehouse for customs and AQIS to check. Then it is loaded into another container and delivered to you. Customs/AQIS check what they are interested in based on the packers inventory and your unaccompanied goods form

Mark

thanks everyone for the replies. i'll make sure that when the time comes to ship, that i'll wrap everything delicate extra vigilantly if it's going to be emptied then loaded up again.