Josie1100

My husband's work are paying for our shipping

We have 25 boxes airfreight that we get 3 weeks after arriving and a 40ft container We are taking everything apart from the dog

somme

Why not the dog

Josie1100

He has been kicked in the face by a horse on Dartmoor and has he gone a bit loopy. He is 10 and I don't think he will cope with the flight etc. It will be kinder to him for my sister to have him and he has got a webcam so we can see him every day if we want to. It has been the hardest decision to come

alipally

I've been toying with the idea of taking all my 'stuff' and this has just confirmed that I definitely want to take everything!! I'm a terrible hoarder, loads of books, loads of dvds and cds.... not to mention OH's gadget habit!!

So take everything.... Just wondering, should we take out 2001 BMW 220 coupe??? It's very nice.... but is it really worth taking?

Ali x

Grubby-monkey

Do electrical plugs need changing - I honestly cannot remember...
Voltage difference... The wife asked...
Dvds, Playstation games, etc. The kids ask me to ask...

Pollyana

Voltage is the same but the plugs are different. Bring adapters and multi-point power boards.

nfernand

This depends on whome and the method of transportaion and type of car.

1) Pickford are damn expensive and they will send yr car in a different container.
2) I went through a small shipping company in North Acton where they put my car & all other house stuff into one 20ft container. (As mentioned above, the car was well protected to put sofa's on top of it.
3) Do not bring Japanees & 4 wheel drives as they are cheaper in Australia.
4) BMW's & Mercs, Audi's are expensive.
5) My 4 yr old BM was worth nothing more than 7K = $17K, cost me tax & part of trasportation $8K max. This car in Australia is worth more than $40K hence a good $15K profit. ps / Every other person in London drives a BM or Merc, Audi TT.....but over in Australia very few BM's etc...

CathnPaul

Our stuff was picked up 14th May,07 and was delivered last week.

If I was to do it all again (after getting our stuff last week) I wouldnt have brought half of what I did. Firstly, I brought my washing machine (which have done without for 14weeks) so for the time we missed it have relied on family, launderettes and making sure the appartments had laundry services. But is nothing like your own washer and CLEAN CLOTHES.

We wouldnt have brought wardrobes either, as every house we have viewed has built in. They have been left flatpacked in the garage.

I agree with a previous post of 'fantastic furniture' shop. We got a similar package for a reduced fee. Dont forget you can barter in the majority of shops over here including fantastic furniture.

I do believe going off the posts above that it may depend on where you are going to settle really, as there as so many different experiences.

DebiE

Instead of changing plugs on every item...we brought over some English extention leads and changed the plug on these instead of changing each and every one of our English appliances. They can then be changed over time..believe me, there will be a lot of changing of plugs. As if you haven't got anything better to do!

DVD's...we brought our UK DVD player, just to play our UK DVD's. Australia's on Area Zone 4 and UK is on Area Zone 2. Since moving we have bought an Aussie DVD player which we have dezone (instructions came in the box). We have tried to dezone our UK player but cannot find the code...we have looked on every website known!

Playstations...not sure about that one. Although looking at our Aussie playstation 2 and games they should be OK. Everything runs on PAL over here, including TV's.

TV... we had trouble with our UK TV to start with and had to buy a DigiBox free to air (this was due to a low signal). Would love to have Sky, Foxtel or Austar but cannot afford it over here - $36.50 for starter package then with sports channel added on, it's another $14.95 and movies another $13.95. Ouch! Pricey!

Dishwasher...we brought over our dishwasher but cannot fit the damn thing under the worksurface. UK dishwasher's seem (but don't quote me on that) to be higher than in Oz. Our rented house comes with a dishwasher so we're lucky. The letting agent said the dishwasher here is of standard size????? But our's is so much higher and is of standard size in UK?????

Wendy

We didn't bring anything that wouldn't fit in our suitcase. I have not for one minute regretted selling or dumping everything before we came and starting again here. We didn't really have anything worth bringing and it would have needed replacing anyway. Also I can't imagine what my sette would have looked like in my house - interesting* probably (*read stupid) I love all my new stuff.

In Adelaide the main shops to go for furniture are:

Le Cornu - Settee's, Beds, Dining Suites etc (can be expensive for matressess, so watch out for that)
Ikea - Well they sell Ikea stuff
The Good Guys - TV's, Fridges, Washing Machines etc
Harvey Normans - TV's, Fridges, Washing Machines, Settees

Go round them all, pick out what you like and ask them for the 'cash' price of the things you want. Take their price to the next shop and they'll match it or beat it. Saves you loads of money

There's also a shop called Haggle.co (otherwise known as Bed-E-Buys), they have some really good stuff in (beds, settee's and bedroom furniture) and as the name suggests you've got to haggle. Although the stuff is pretty decently priced anyway.

Kitchen stuff - you can pick up some really good bargains from places like KMart, Big W and Target. I recently bought a 20 piece dinner service, a set of 5 kitchen knifes in a block, a set of 6 utensils, measuring cups and spoons and a measuring jug - cost me just $40

Good luck with your decision

Pollyana

Playstations are fine - games are interchangeable. The Bloke takes his Aus games when we go home and plays them on my nephew's UK machine, and when the family were out here this month nephew brought a suitcase full of games (who needs clothes!!) all of which worked here

alipally

I guess the furniture thing is personal.

For us, we have a leather suite that cost £6000 so I want to take that. I also have an exceptionally well equipped kitchen, with Magimix food processor, kitchen aid mixer and blender, Dualit toaster, Global kitchen knives a full Denby dinner service, Le crueset casseroles... etc, etc, I really don't think I could sell it and buy it again without losing mega amounts of money... Unless somebody can persuade me otherwise.... ??

In regards to the car... the jury is still out as OH really wants a 4X4, we also have a quad bike and scrambler that the boys want to take..... I should have looked at the price of the Yamaha Raptor whilst we were out there.....

Ali and Jon x

saville

hi Wendy when you left everything and brought new out there did your oh leave or take his electric power tools for work if you left them how much does it cost to replace them. My oh has quite a lot of tools and in bit of dilemna whether to keep or sell. Thanks for any info you can give.

steveandtina

hi

me and the missus are half way through immigration process, passed tra and now applying for visa, was reading comments with great interest. realy not sure what to do with furniture especially washing machine and tumble dryer. it seems that stuf is expensive to buy in oz but how much does it cost to ship stuff over??? do the companies come to your house and collect?? can anyone reccomend a good company to ship (or one to avoid!!)

thanks everyone and keep up the good work all helping eachover out

emelems

I am planning to take as much as I possibly can! We are hoping to buy a 20ft container and fill it with the entire house contents!

I couldnt possibly face re-buying all my kitchen stuff (it has taken me 12 yrs of being married to finally get all the stuff I want) and the thought of throwing away garlic presses, measuring spoons, tin openers just to have to buy them again kinda goes against the grain for me.. (am an avid recycler at the best of times!)..

Just reading this thread reconfirms what I was thinking of doing so am over the moon that I seem to be in the majority... plus I am now going to go thru all my stuff and make sure that I have all the little bits that I havent gotten around to buying as Tescos etc, are easy to get to and buy them from! (am planning some new plates/dishes etc as mine are getting old and battered!)..

Thanks everyone ! (have been reading most of the replies outloud to my OH who was a bit dubious and thought I was doing "overkill" when I said I wanted to take as much of our stuff as I physically could! LOL!)..

Happy Days!! (we have just been on the phone to Oz and are in the process of setting up our bank account! eeek! and I have been looking at the Winnebagos! double eek! LOL!)

Em x