thepominlaw

Hi,

Currently getting some horrendous quotes for a 20ft container coventry to brisbane door to door (well horrendous to me anyway) £4000, £4300, £4500 & £5100 so i am considering if we really need to take everything - why not sell what we have (for a large loss i imagine) and start new again.

Apart from ikea is it my imagination or do no retailers like DFS, Comet, Currys etc exist in Oz i have been trying to price things up but i am getting nowhere as there dont seem to be any online stores.

I am not sure whether to bite the bullet and take everthing (except things that wont work) or start again.

Are part containers worth the money? Should we take what we have.

thanks

john

Sir Les Patterson

hi john they are there somewhere just got to look for the buggers really hard
i have realised that the ozzies are about 10 years behind the uk at internet retail
steve

moneypenny20

They seem very high quotes. We had a 20' reefer from Herts to Brissie and managed to get most of our three bed semi in it. John Mason charged just over £3,000. Personally I would bring everything. Because we sent our stuff a month before we left, we kept lots of stuff back - bedding, towels, some kitchen stuff and although you can get it cheap, it does soon add up and when you are first starting, house rental, car purchase, etc etc the extras can seem never ending.

You will have loads of other people say get rid of everything and start again so really only you can decide

One thing I wish we had brought out is a tumble dryer. Our old one was on it's last leg so we dumped it. Should have bought a new one and fitted it in the container. They are quite pricey here but as far as I am concerned, when it's very humid the washing does not dry properly and a tumble dryer would just finish it off. Out next week to get one

tin

Check out this thread for some info - kindly posted by Hutch - of what it would cost to kit yourselves out again:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=349298

That way you can make a more informed decision at least!
Cheers
Martyn

manxfamily

Hi There Mrs Manx here. We have also been going through the same dilemma. We were looking at quotes and found this site, it gives you an idea of what costs are involved to ship and also what it would cost to replace, we have now decided to take as much as possible.
http://www.johnmason.com/
Hope this helps.

4500 Times

I would say bring as much as you can, from your sofas to your ironing board.

When we arrived we had nothing and had to buy things like a sofa, tv & dvd, but we knew we would have to anyway, because the houses are so much bigger.

The Ikea store @ Springwood ( Brissie ) is excellent, if a little small. We bought a lovely sofa and dining table from there, various little lamps and nic nacs.

We lived in a terraced house back in the UK so we had nowhere near enough furniture to fill a house this size.

There are excellent stores like Super AMart for furniture and JB HI-FI for all your tv's,dvds, etc etc.

The choice is yours

Gold Coaster

Sell the lot and start again over here imo. It is not worth the hassle and If I ever did it again I would not bother. Plus your furniture will be a very different style to what is perceived Australian style so it is easier to start again. Saying that, I did not have any problems at all with the shipping and not one breakage and it cost half what you have been quoted. I shipped a 40 cube container as my sister shared half of it as she moved out here at the same time and I think that bill only came to about 5k, but that was 2 and a half years ago.

bigmac31

hi, we moved from lancashire to s.e. melbourne and we lived in a 3 bed semi detatched. we took all the kitchen equip and all the tools, Some toys that the kids liked playing with, all babies furniture 1 settee, dining talbe and a few other things but no wardrobes as they usually come with walk in robes. and we got just over half of 20ft container with john mason and it cost £2300 with insurance. I was so grateful when all my stuff arrived as i didn't have to go shopping for the nitty gritty things that we had accumlated over the years. It was nice to go shopping for beds and settees and just little bits of things but your money does go fast. John mason were fantastic and they packed everything up in a day and when we arrived at the other end wridgeways unpacked it all for us and they were good as well. Take all the plugs off appliances before they pack them and all white goods are very expensive so i would bring them over with you.eg;washer, dryer, dishwasher, but not fridge freezers,they wouldn't let us take that because of cfc gases in the back of it. We did a lot of car boots to get some money for the things we didn't want to take and we made a fair bit, only take the things you are really gonna need and don't want to part with. Good luck in your adventure.
natalie

Izzy

Bring everything and ship in advance if possible as it is easier to borrow in UK than it is out here. It sounds mad but it is so tiring when you get here as there is just so much to do and you can't simply go and buy a tin opener or a new bed, as first of all you have to figure out where you can buy it from and then how to find the shop and then negotiate delivery etc............ and the shopping malls are so huge, it took me 4 hours to find a pair of trousers for my daughter -

Harvey Norman are good for anything to do with furniture or electrical items, or Clive Peters and K-Mart, Target or Big W are good for all sorts of run of the mill household stuff like pots and pans, or car seats etc - of course there is also Myer and David Jones if you have the money !

Don't bother bringing your fridge or freezer - it won't be powerful enough, but bring anything else. Buy lots of adaptors in UK (very expensive here) and also some leads where you can put 4 UK sockets in and then you only need one adaptor. In Melbourne to keep your home insurance valid you are supposed to get an electrician to fit new plugs.

We saved money buy going to a marine insurance broker to get our insurance. worked out half the price that the packers were quoting.

PS we used PSS - they were the cheapest quote, but were great - no breakages at all and everything ran like clockwork.

Hope this helps

karenjc

We used a company called Atlantis based in Birmingham and for a sole use 20ft container door to door it cost £3300. We are so glad we brought everything that we did. We believe it has saved us quite a bit of money. A few of the shops are superamart, Harvey Norman, domayne, Myer, David jones,or my favourite shop crazy clarks.

thepominlaw

Can i ask why you took all the plugs off your appliances?

thanks

john

willybear

Hi

Sell up and start again. That's what I would do if I had to do it again. The hassle of shipping is not worth it. You can get some real bargains at auctions or second hand shops.

Whatever you are quoted for shipping it will probably be a lot more once every department in Oz has billed you for random tasks and paperwork!

Good luck with the move, get on e bay and sell, sell, sell!

Will

willybear

Hi

Plugs are different in OZ! You can either buy a job lot of adapters or remove the plugs and fit new ones once here, but remember by the letter of the law you are supposed to get a qualified electrician to fit the new plugs!!!

Problem I have found with using a lot of adapters is that I can't use 2 adapters in a double socket as both won't fit side by side.

will