Sod's Law / Murphy's Law.

This raises a good point. I would recommend protecting all TVs, VCRs, PCs etc with a surge protected power board. Because of the electrical storms, the overloaded grid (due to air conditioners in summer) and bush fires power here is not stable. I am considering buying a UPS for the PC but I have most items on surge protected power boards.

Totally agree! I too build my own PCs, and there's nothing worse than watching a new motherboard fry!

With our place in the mountains it would cost $25,000 to have mains connected, so I'm going to invest that in a solar power system with backup generator. (Nearly free electricity, apart from capital costs and the odd drop of fuel.) Then I'll put in a surge protection MCB panel.

bring as much as you can is what i say..cos you only have to replace it!!!
i brought towels, tea towels, dusters etc and they smelled as fresh as when they were packed for shipping!

all electrical stuff work except tv..you can get sound or pic but not both together!...buy new oz video then it works but is a pain using 2 different remotes all the time....shame eh!..
2 of the tvs have got green shading on part of the screen ..dunno why??..anyone enlighten us????
how do you get uk tv's adjusted?? ...please tell me cos we are about to buy new uns for kids for xmas...poor loves having to have them as xmas gifts again!!!

lots of oz houses have windows to floor(the ones ive seen anyway)..so maybe if your curtains are new and thinking of bringing em and they arent to the floor ..re think.
hubby wishes he had brought all his boxes of screws and nails instead of giving em away.
microwave trips the main fuse so we cant use it..will have to buy another which we arent bothered about cos its old anyway!

i have found bedding a tad expensive so bring yours esp sheets ..if duvets are newish then bring them too..i was worried about damp but nothing smelled funny at all

a few of my boxes had been checked but nothing was pulled up. we even brought our daughters riding gear,..body protector, boots etc (put on the shipping form that it had been disinfected though)

our computer worked absolutely fine..plugged it in and away it went!!

thats it for now

Just another note. For PC's with modems get a protection strip with a phone line protector because lightening can zap your motherboard through the modem.

I also opted to bring nothing, just the 20K plus handluggage as I'm only here for 2 years.

I've bought cheap furniture from superAmart and Kmart have been good for kitchen stuff etc. It was just a pain finding all the stuff at the beginning and adds up to a fair amount of dosh when you're still waiting for first pay cheque. I'm finding that not having any of my personal possessions make it feel very temporary though. However what I've spent so far is much less than the cost of shipping.

On the computer side, can anyone recommend a good ISP for occasional use? I'd like something equivalent to one-tel back home, free call +1p a minute anytime of day, no pre-pay
and I could plug into any phone in the country and it was still billed to me.

TC