lenaro_w

We are planning to move to Victoria from France in the next year or so. I have Australian citizenship from a previous stint over there so entry for family is being sorted, just need to sell the house.

My big question is regarding the move. Have any of you wise ones made the move over from France to anywhere in Australia & how did you do it? We are trying to work out whether we should buy a container & ship it over or pay a company to do it for us.

We also have a rather large dog that will be coming with us & the same question applies; do it ourselves or pay someone?

TIA

verystormy

Well, I have never heard of anyone buyingba container. It would be VERY expensive and the normal is to get a number of shipping companies to come in and give quotes for shipping.

Dogs also need to be done via a specialist shipper. Have a look at Dogtainers and Jet Pets. Be aware, dogs are very expensive to ship and you will be looking at a number of thousand.

lenaro_w

We have a lot of space here & have friends with the same in Vic, so storage is not a problem & it saves having to worry about it all until we get settled. Container osts are relatively low here (about €1500 delivered), so thought this could be a good cost saving idea.

Have been looking at options for the dog & you can do it yourself, so wanted to see if anyone had any experiences to share. I REALLY don't want to be the one that tells our 4 yo why her best friend didn't come with us...

Bermudashorts

I got to say, I am very puzzled by this idea of buying a container. What are you going to do with a huge metal box once you arrive in Australia? I do not believe there is a market for second hand shipping containers. And you would still have to pay for it to be shipped or are you thinking of buying a ship as well.

As for the pets well again, doing it yourself doesn't mean it is free. You will still have the vet fees, flights and quarantine fees that make up the bulk of the cost. So I am not sure it comes down to "doing it yourself" or telling a four year old their pet is not coming.

It is up to you to decide whether you want to do away with the services of a pet transportation company in order to save that part of the fee to be honest. Personally, having moved pets internationally four times, they are well worth it for taking out the hassle.

When we moved back from Bermuda, that was the time when we had no choice but to do it ourselves as there are no pet transportation experts in Bermuda. It was an incredibly stressful experience getting them ready and then at airport somebody told me that one of the pieces of paper I had was not required so they went without it only to get impounded at Gatwick and then we were charged £20 an hour until we could get them released. We had sent them on ahead of us for somebody to pick up on our behalf in UK, so getting this piece of paper to them was a challenge as they would not accept scanned version. We thought ME Bs would need to fly out with it, only one flight a day from Bermuda so those £20 were racking up. Nightmare!

mikelincs

Remember that the cost of the container is the smallest part of the cost of shipping, it's the actual cost of the transport to the ship, on the ship and everytng at the other end, remember you would have to arrange customs clearance, shipping from the port to your new home. I really think that a shipping company would be considearably cheaper, plus, of course, you would have the cost of insurance, shippping companies will probably get preferential rates as they will be big users. Again with the pet transport, use a specialist pet movers, cut out the hassle, and the worry.

Amazulu

Not that expensive:
20ft A-Grade Shipping Containers Fully PAINTED in Laverton North | Miscellaneous Goods | Gumtree Australia Wyndham Area - Laverton North | 1122562297

Offer them cash and you could probably get it for under 2 grand

You'd then (if you have the space) have a great storage solution, workshop, whatever etc

Winner, winner chicken dinner

Swerv-o

Shipping containers have become quite the thing to build low cost houses out of these days...


S

Amazulu

When we were in Salzburg a few years ago, a local pointed out a block of flats that had been built out of shipping containers. TBH it was quite ugly but definitely fills a need as a low-cost housing solution

Pollyana

They are often used as temporary homes in Queensland post-disaster - after the Grantham floods for instance, and also after some cyclones up north

lenaro_w

Thank you. We are hoping to use the container as storage on our land once we get sorted, so disposal is not an issue. If we do go down this route.

My question really is to see if anyone else has already gone down this route & how did they do? I have read a couple of blogs about moving dogs, albeit from the States to Aus, but am yet to find anyone who has done the move by themselves in the container (obviously no dog in container).

Fingers crossed!

Pollyana

I;ve been on this forum a very long time and honesty can't remember anyone buying their own container for the move.