Could anyone advise me on how long it takes from items being picked up from your UK address to being on the boat headed for Australia?

I sent some tea crate boxes through pss on 26th February and they haven't even left the UK yet. Is this normal?

My wife is freaking out about not having clothes etc. As it was sent deliberately early so it would beat us there.

That seems rather a long period; our 20' container was on a ship within a couple of weeks.
Everyone is different, but we managed with the clothes that we took in our hand luggage for the two months that it took for the container to arrive

you say "some tea crate boxes" so not a full container then? In that case it sounds like you agreed for a consolidation shipment. This is where lots of different peoples boxes etc are lumped together to fill a container. If this is the case then it is quite likely the allocated container is not yet full. It will not ship until completely full.I know this can take weeks to fill. As to how long it'll take to get to Oz I don't know. Then all the items need unpacking, sorting into the owners piles and then arrangements made to deliver them. When we moved here to the Philippines 3 years ago, we had a 20ft container, packed at the house, knew which ship it was going on and when it was due to sail from Felixstowe. I could then track our container all the way to the dock here in Cebu! Took 34 days from leaving Felixstowe, including putting onto another ship in Singapore.

Did you ask about shipping times etc. Did they give you a date?

Unless you had an agreement specifying this then I'm afraid as above, they will just add them to another shipment which will not go until it is full.

Same will go for a container, even if it is a sole use, unless you specify shipping dates and schedules and get them in writing then it will go on the most convenient one for the shipping company. Most people do not ask but they should give you options and they can vary by several weeks! Can be worth paying a bit extra if you want stuff quicker. We did and chose a ship that left earlier and arrived earlier than the one we had originally been offered, made over three weeks difference.

We were quoted as 7-12 weeks from pick which is now looking like 12 weeks minimum and it was 7 tea crate boxes, about 60x60x60.

I think it was a consolidation shipment was just surprised to hear that 4 weeks after pick up it's still in the uk. We're now having to spend extra money on appropriate clothes as it'll still be pretty hot in Brisbane when we arrive.

It's a pain but think it's my own fault for being a bit naive.

It would probably be a week or two for a full container, so four weeks for a partial doesn't sound too unreasonable. If it goes soon you could still just be within the upper end of your estimate. We were nine weeks door to door for a full container.

Looks like they "guesstimated" when the consol would leave. It could have left earlier if more folks wanted to part ship , or later if it was a quiet time. you'll find they will have a clause saying shipment time is a best estimate so unless they stated it would leave by such and such a date then you'll just have to be patient! you could ask them to let you know the container number and the ship it's on - you can then track the container on something like ;
Container tracking - track-trace
If you know the shipping line - in our case it was Maersk - you can use their own website to track it. It was interesting to follow ours - down the channel, into the med, through the Suez canal etc. Sorry, it's old age .

He did say it could be tracked once the shipping details were available, so I will probably be an avid viewer of that ships journey down and probably questioning the captains route and all sorts

Takes a lot longer to fill the containers coming this way these days - the majority of shipping is apparently going the other way, shipping to the UK is booming!