KerryG

Hi all down under

I am hoping to join you in Spetember and was discussing the shipping logistics with hubby which made me nervous! So I thought I would ask at the fount of all knowledge which is this forum.

Firstly, how long did it take to ship your stuff there?

Secondly, how did you live without your stuff?

We were hoping to set up a 6 month rent for unfurnished prior to arrival (a friend in Byron Bay said this is the go for arriving at the start of summer and we should book it in April). How do you juggle life whilst all your furniture and stuff is on a boat somewhere.

How did you all get over that hurdle, especially if you had kids?

Dying to hear your suggestions and how you all coped.

Thanks

Kerry

BenandPam

I am very interested in people's experiences as well. Our plan is to do a short term furnished rental for 2 weeks and then rent an unfurnished place, just buying a sofa bed, and surviving until the container arrives. We are trying to decide whether to send the container ahead of us by a few weeks, so that (in theory) we only have a fews to wait for it to arrive at the other end.

FozzieBear

Our plan at the moment (and this is subject to change....isn't everything in this game!) is to take very little with us and do a furnished rent for 3-6 mths till we get settled with the rest of our stuff in storage till we have bought a house and got jobs.

We have a young daughter too, so it is a little more worrying I guess but we're sure we'll get by on the bare essentials for a while.

Fozzie

Geordie George

We're travelling for four weeks to get to Aus and shipping two weeks before that, so our stuff has a six weeks head start. Should mean <touch wood> that we only have to wait two weeks for our things to arrive, which will, hopefully, give us time to find somewhere to rent. If we don't find anywhere, storage is quite cheap. If the stuff is delayed, we'll stay in a hostel until it arrives.

GG

binbird

If the house sells we intend to ship everything in advance of us leaving the country and hopefully have a roof provided over our heads by my mum. Fortunately she has room to put up the five of us (hubby and three daughters aged 6,5 and 3) and we think we could all survive like that for 4-6 weeks if need be. We are then planning to fly to Sydney via a USA Disney holiday (coz if we don't do it now we probably never will - we are not loaded but you can't get out of paying for the flights so taking a holiday en route makes it seem as though you only have to pay for the accommodation and entertainment etc). So we'll arrive in Oz with a few less Aus dollars burning a hole in our pockets but hopefully we will have happy children!

All this considered, we would then hope to get a rental property sorted and move in at roughly the same time as our shipment is available at the other end. (Nice plan and even nicer if it all works out!)

Can anybody see any pitfalls in this? I know it is going to be a nightmare trying to sort out what to carry and what to ship but at the end of the day we should be reunited with all our belongings at some stage....

Binbird

Beegee

My shippers come on Monday...I leave on Sunday Just have to hope on oldies send the right stuff!

I am stopping off in Bangkok and I am gonna travel thru Cambodia and Loas for a month before I get back on the plane to Perth, so that should take some of the time up.

Anyway must dash...I've some more packing to do!

FozzieBear

I tend to read a magazine or a book (much to the annoyance of anyone else who needs to use the bathroom!)

Fozzie


edit - )Apols I misread the thread title, please ignore.)

KerryG

Wow! Now that sounds like a good plan!! Dont know whether the hubby can be convinced on doing the Disney thing not his bag really. I was hoping to persuade him to do the journey via USA as it reduces jet lag flying that way round - which will be murder with a 2 and 4 year old! - I havent won him over yet!

Hubby suggested spending a couple of weeks at my Dads and a couple at his mums, but knowing how stressful it is to just do a weekend, dont know about that one, I will think on it though as it is a good logistical solution.

When are you off?

Kerry

Jacko1

We had a weeks hols in Singapore on the way and then stayed in a furnished rental (organised WELL in advance) for four weeks, in hindsight we should have had the furnished rental for six weeks. Then jumped in and bought a place, we knew where we wanted to be, we did not bring beds sofas etc so bought these anyway. Still had a couple of weeks with out the rest of our things.
Shipping takes between six and eight weeks for a full container a part container takes longer unless you are very lucky.

Good Luck

Paul J

Sandra

We arranged a fully serviced apartment for six weeks which had everything - including bed linen and towels for us washed and changed once a week. We sent the stuff at the same time we left and six weeks later we had only to cover ourselves for two nights in the unfurnished rental without our gear. A friendly lady from the school our kids went to lent us camping gear for the two nights.

Having the apartment for six weeks was not that expensive around $100 a night and allowed us the added advantage of having loads of time to sort out a really good rental house in the area we wanted and have the kids check out the schools and area. Looking back now at my diary I am glad we didn't have to hurry to get a rental some of the places we saw frighten me now...my notes say things like...running water, through the house.....steep driveway 100 m of sheer cliff.....children liked black toilet seat, I realised it was mould.....

We had an individual container I have heard people say sending items groupage can take longer.

Good luck

darrio

I was told 6-10 weeks from the UK to Sydney with Excess Baggage, and it arrived after the 10 weeks.

tracey.d

This may sound stupid but here goes. I have looked at a few websites re shipping items. They all seem to state that you need to put your forwarding address. What do you do if you don't know where that is going to be. I plan on sorting that out when I arrive. This kind of puts me off shipping my stuff.

Do they just give you a reference number or something so that you can inform them later? (I think I may have just answered my own question!!!)

renth

It took 12 weeks to ship our stuff out (twice as long as we were told it would).

Our first month was in a furnished rental then in an unfurnished rental. We bought loads of cheap stuff like cutlery from Ikea and WA Salvage which mostly all fell apart by the time the container arrived.

Make use of some airlines extended baggage allowance for unused migrant visas.

gedge

Our container load took about 3 months to arrive in Sydney.
The first month we were still in th UK staying with the inlaws and saying our goodbyes. Our first 2 weeks were in a FF place through rent-a-home, then we found our own place.
We took with us a blow up mattress and then bought some camp chairs. Also bought a picnic set for plates, bowls, cutlery, cups and glasses, a couple of cheap pots and pans etc. and some linen. Go somewhere like Big W and you can get cheap stuff - we got a kettle, toaster and iron for less than $30.
It was six weeks then to manage till d-day (delivery day!!!)

No kids so this probably made it easier. We ate out lots

Good luck with your plans.

Jacko1

Just give them a temporary address, where you are staying when you first get here, then change address when you move.

Thats what we did.

Paul J