I am going to go back to the UK in September and need some helpful advice.

Now divorced from my wife whom I moved over to Brisbane with almost 5 years ago, and I need help with finding the quickest and cheapest way of sending only a small amount of belongings back to the UK.

I don't need a cargo container, I'm only sending back a PC, Monitor, Guitar, Amp, a few books and some clothing.

Very limited funds to do much.

Recommendations?

Couldn't you bring most of that as carry-on baggage or checked baggage?

Erm, clothes yes, guitar maybe... PC, Big HD Monitor and a couple of other bits, probably not.

Isn't there something called unacompanied baggage ?

Have you phoned around the airlines to see who can help you ?

It's still early days yet. I'm not leaving for about 3 months, so I have time available to me. Just pre-planning as much as I can.

http://www.upakweship.com/index.php works out of Australia, pretty cheap if you sort out the boxing yourself. It also might be cheaper to pay a couple hundred $$ and pay for extra baggage on the plane for those other items.

OSS may be able to help out, they have an office in Brisbane. They deal with all move sizes, from just a few boxes to a full container or more. I used them last year to send 10 boxes from Melbourne for a temporary move back to the UK.

Cheers People

Given the size and risk of damage I'd sell the monitor and buy a new one when you arrive. Unless the computer is less than two years old, I'd back up everything onto thumb drive or CDs and flog that too.

Absolutely.

The only bit of your computer that is "special" is the data. Copy the data to a USB or the cloud or even just a spare hard drive and carry that with you and have a new computer when you get back home. You might be able to get a new computer back in the UK for the price you get selling the old one there, or at least a chunk of the cost.

Yes, less than two years old AND a very expensive, upmarket, machine.
Otherwise shipping is more than it's worth, not to mention the risk and delay.

If concerned about privacy or identity theft it is much better to just remove the hard drive (with the attached cables if possible) and bring that with you in hand baggage. Make a backup of critical data and email archives to a thumb drive before removing the hard drive.

Cheers for your input... I tend to only deal with 'custom build' pc's and I'm sure you can understand the (not necessarily sentimental) value. I'm likely to have to sell/leave a lot of stuff behind anyways...

Still, there are some things I just can't part with if you know what I mean.

Hi there
Very similar situ with me, I left Canada last week with 5 suitcases, my daughter and a cat. We had our laptop and 3 large carry on bags. I actually used www.excessbaggage.com to ship 4 boxes of our items we couldn't bear to part with. They were cheap and quick, took 5 days to arrive. Good luck.

Maaaaaaate....

I just moved from melbourne back to the uk..

Wound up with 4 tea chest size cardboard boxes and two guitars......

They picked up from my house and I pick up from there depot in London

shipped the whole lot as LCL via a freight forwarder for under $500 with insurance....

Takes six weeks but that gives you time to sort an address etc...

Hi Daniel

Just wanted to say sorry about your marriage not working out and to wish you well for the future.I give you and other people a lot of credit for being brave enough to follow your heart and marry somone, and then move to their country to live.That requires real heart and I admire that. Can't offer any info on moving companies but did want to lend my over-all support. Take care buddy!