When we shipped our stuff to Australia we made the conscious decision to leave a lot of the furniture back in the UK.

Anything that we didn’t want to take with us was either sold or donated to family, friends or charity.

There were still a number of things that we decided to bring with us though.

First thing to join us was our bed. It was only about 6 months old and because it cost a bit (damn NASA space foam) we decided to bring it with us.

The irony is, because we needed a bed when we got here we bought a new one anyway. Still, we now have a nice bed in the spare bedroom for when people come to visit.

Second thing we bought was an old dining room table that used to be my gran’s. Probably the only thing I brought due to sentimental reasons and I’m so glad that we did. Read the full story

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The 19th of November 2006 was a pretty momentous date for us as it was the day that White and Company packed and removed 96 boxes worth of stuff and we finally felt that we were on our way to a new life down under (the following week we were).

Over four months later, we have been reunited with our 96 boxes of ‘stuff’.

I think it’s fair to say that 20 weeks is a lot longer then we originally expected we’d have to wait before being reunited with our possessions again.

Admittedly, we had a shared container which meant it may have been sat at White and Companies depot for a little while whilst they waited to fill the other half with another customer’s possessions but 20 weeks? Phew!

In general the service from White and Company has been pretty good but like our good chums at the Halifax, they seemed sadly lacking in the proactivity department as time progressed.

There had been a number of delays (for whatever reason) once our container arrived in Fremantle and it was unfortunate that we were never given a realistic updates from White and Company or their Aussie counterparts to advise us what was going on.

It was only when we phoned the guys (several times) that we got any kind of update. Still at least it’s all here now.

Is everything still in one piece?

Before we made our own journey down under, I had read a number of horror stories from people who had shipped some or all of their own stuff out to Australia.

Some folks wrote about the time when their whole shipping container got tossed over the edge of the ship during high winds. Some spoke about how all of their boxes were ruined by heavy handed customs officials whilst others warned that you should prepare to have some of your stuff looted by crooked thieves!

I’m really not sure how true some of these stories were but at time of typing I’m relieved to say that everything appears to be accounted for, in the sense that we have the same number of boxes we left with and as you can see in the picture (which shows about 10% of the boxes) they are in good condition.

All is not perfect and there has been some confusion however.

Who changed our boxes?

Bizarrely, some of our boxes have been repacked. We’re not sure why or by whom but some of the stuff we packed has been unpacked from the originally boxes and repacked in new ones without any kind of explanation.

In addition, the inventory we were provided by White and company in the UK which was effectively a list with box numbers on one side and contents on the other doesn’t really match up. It seems that at some point between leaving our house in the UK and arriving in Australia many of the boxes have been renumbered!

Those Essential items were not really….well, essential

It’s not going to be for some time before we can verify that everything has arrived in one piece.

Since undertaking the worlds biggest shop and buying sundry other ‘essential’ items, a lot of the stuff will remain in its boxes until we make the final move from rented accommodation into our own home.

We should still have a decent idea about the state of everything within the next couple of weeks though as we’ll still need to check every box so we can report any breakages or losses back to White and Company.

Even though we only brought out half a shipping containers worth of stuff, in hindsight, we could have left a lot more back in the UK.

Because it takes so long for thing to get out here it’s only natural that you buy the things you need in order to get by. Once you’ve got by for four months you can pretty much manage without all of those ‘essentials’ and you start asking yourself why you brought any of this stuff in the first place.

Having said that, items like junior’s favourite toys and teddies, our photographs, DVD / CD collection, and maternity cloths for the missus have been welcomed back with open arms.

Anyway, it’s done now and it’s another thing crossed off the list. I’ll write another entry in the future to give my final thoughts (Jerry Springer style) on White and company once we’ve done a full review on the condition and content (or lack) within the boxes.

There is also a small mater of a refund due from White and Company that we’ll need to chase.

We were quoted and paid for half a container but by the time we had packed everything we realised that we had actually used a fair bit less.

It was a condition of White and Company doing the move that we had to pay the full amount upfront and they’ll refund the difference if there was one.

As they’ve not come back to us about this (surprise surprise) it looks like it’ll but up to us to chase this. Hopefully there will be nothing untoward to report

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Well, who would have thought it but we are now only days away from catching a plane and starting our new life in Australia.

The shippers came on Thursday and Friday last week. The photo above shows our dining room after day one. What you see there (click thumbnail for a larger image) represents about 25% of the stuff we ended up taking to Australia.

Since getting our original quotation from white and company, I’m chuffed to bits that we managed to ‘loose’ the 10 boxes of ‘stuff’ that we needed to loose to fill only half a container, however we are still finding odd bits and bobs that we wished we’d packed and shipped when we had the opportunity, still, we always have the final suitcase cramming session to look forward to in the next day or so.

The shippers that we ended up choosing, White and Company did a good job packing all of our stuff although I was a little disappointed that the guys ran out of sufficient boxes and materials during day two meaning that we had to utilize some of the less adequate boxes that we’d already packed in the previous months.

Still, in general the service up to this stage has been excellent. The original advice from the chap at White and Company who did the original quotation kind of went out of the window.

We were originally told things such as no mixing and matching of stuff in boxes, no padding your plates with your duvet covers etc… That all went out of the window with our packers telling us that they do it all the time. It seems as long as everything is clearly documented there shouldn’t be any problems.

To be honest it was probably this that helped us cut down the total boxes required as originally we had quite a few half boxes full of certain types of stuff because we couldn’t mix and match. If this new advice leads to our stuff being stuck in Australian customs for 12 months then I’ll let you know.

Lots of stuff to update you guys on including the news that I’ve managed to secure a job in Aus but I’ll post this update when I have a little more time.

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Well, the next stage in our whole moving process kicked off this week with our first formal quotation from a shipping company. It proved to be a useful and informative visit.

A representative from White and Company came to visit and had a good look at all the stuff we want to take so that they could give us a rough estimate of the amount of storage space we would need and therefore advise if we needed to book a full container or could share a container with someone else.

The advantage of taking a full twenty foot container is that it gets there quicker as they don’t need to wait for the remainder of the container to be filled by someone else before its sent.

A 20 ft container gives you 1150 cubic feet of storage apparently, anything over half of this (lets say 600 cubic feet) needs to go in a full container, anything less then 600 cubic feet goes in what is refereed to as ‘groupage’ (shared).

After doing a full review of our stuff were looking at 650 cubic feet. I.e. borderline.

Having a full container would be good as we could take more then we originally planned, having said that moving to Australia is a great chance to spring clean.

For me, this is a real necessity. Being a typical bloke I have about 30 years of crap that I’ve kept ‘just in case’. I blame my dad for this

There is also the all important cost element to bare in mind.

A twenty foot container from White and Company, sent to Australia would cost us £3,500! A guestimate for our 600 cubic foot is approx. £1800. We’ll be going for the half container I think!

We should easily be able to get under the 600 cubic feet. The footage is calculated by the number of boxes you’ll take and half of the boxes that we have already packed are only half full.

As well as the boxes of stuff we’ll be taking, we are also taking our bed (which is about 6 months old and cost us over £1000 new – think Nasa space foam mattress), our TV (2 years old) stereo and some nursery stuff (you never know) like the little lads old cot, changing table, etc.

There’s actually a lot of stuff but it will all go in half a container say the experts.

Some interesting things that we’ve picked up which should be kept in mind when shipping your stuff to Australia:

• You can’t ship out any wicker, bamboo or natural fibres
• With your shoes, they have to be thoroughly cleaned, the cleaner the better (with the recommendation being that you use strong disinfectant on the soles that is so strong that it can be smelt if checked!)
• It’s recommended that for shoes and cloths, take them with you when you fly out. Remember you get double the baggage allowance (40 – 50 kg) on many airlines when flying one way to Australia (with the sole purpose being to emigrate) so use the extra space for shoes and other similar items.
• Any electrical items shipped that are less then 12 months old are subject to import tax
• All items need to be categorised and boxed separately. I.e. China goes in one box, glass goes in a separate box and bedding goes in another – no cross packing.

This latter point is because the import guys in Aus will select 3 – 5 boxes at random for checking so only the stuff labelled on the box should be found in it.

No chance for accidental mix ups either! The shippers need to check everything packed to ensure its labelled correctly so it looks like a lot of the stuff we’ve already bubblewrapped will need to be unwrapped.

I’m assuming they need to sign a declaration themselves confirming there are no illegal substances or objects being shipped so in a way this makes sense.

It will take 14 – 16 weeks for our shared container to arrive (if you took a full container of your own you’d be looking at between 12 – 14 weeks.

We need to dismantle the bed and any other large items and take all of the stuff out of the loft before packing.

Lots to do by the sounds of it.

The in-laws used White and company when they moved to Australia earlier this year and they were ‘quite happy’ with the service.

So far they seem to know what they are doing. Time to get a couple more quotes in first though.

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I’ve added quite a few (pre-written) articles to our about Australia section today. Although quite a few of these articles are probably targeted a little more at the folks going on Holiday to Australia as opposed to those looking to emigrate, they still make some very interesting ready and paint a very pretty picture of Australia as a whole.

Happy reading..

On the house front. No updates from the Halifax since my last update although still not particularly concerned at this stage. We marked the house as sold with the little house company. A great concept and perhaps we may have got a commission free sale had we found them sooner but hey, if were going to spend £2000 shipping the cats to Australia what’s another £135??? A lot I know but in the bigger scheme of things…

Anyway, off to phone the Halifax for another update, who’s for putting money that they completely ignore my call back request!

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Tourist attractions in and around Perth

Weeks or even months can pass in Perth without substantial rainfall. One of its main attractions are its beaches, located along the city’s coastal suburbs. Perth’s beaches are not as developed as becahes in other Australian cities.

Perth City

The centre of Perth is located on the northern bank of the Swan River, a part of the River known as ‘Perth Water’ and roughly comprises three parallel sections.

The central business district, close to the river, runs along St Georges Terrace and Adelaide Terrace and is the historical core of the city. It includes Government House and several office towers. Parliament House is on the hill to the west looking along St Georges Terrace towards the Darling Scarp.

The retail district, which has its focus on the Hay and Murray Street Malls. These pedestrian malls are interconnected by arcades and walk through shops. Over time the number of hotels in this area has declined, with new hotels being built at the eastern and western ends of the city. Forrest Place, connecting Wellington Street and Murray Street, is a popular meeting spot, and is the site of political rallies and public events. Closed to traffic and redeveloped in the mid-1980s, it is flanked by the Commonwealth Bank and GPO buildings on the west, and the Forrest Chase retail development on the east.

The entertainment and cultural precinct, known as Northbridge commences at the point where the railway land cuts through the city. It extends for at least four blocks north, and is bound at the east by the Library, Art Gallery and Museum, and to the west by the northern suburbs railway.

Kings Park Perth

Kings Park occupies 1,000 acres (4.06 km ²) of the crest of a large hill (Mt Eliza) overlooking the CBD.

Larger than New York’s Central Park (843 acres (341 ha)), Kings Park contains Perth’s botanical gardens as well as tracts of natural bushland.

During spring, Kings Park bursts into a world-class display of wildflowers, which is a popular tourist attraction. In August 2003, the Lotterywest Federation Walkway was opened in Kings Park. It is a 620 m long elevated walkway through the treetops, providing a remarkable bird’s eye view of the park and gardens as well as sweeping views of the Swan River.

Perth is a relatively green city, with an abundance of parks and tree-lined boulevards.

Swan Bells

The Swan Bells is a bell tower siting on the edge of the Swan River. It is a copper clad structure representing the sails of a ship.

It houses bells from the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, which were gifts from the United Kingdom to the people of Australia on the occasion of Australia’s 200-year anniversary of colonisation.

The Swan Bells was opened to the public in 2001.

The government of Western Australia took a significant amount of criticism for creating the Bell Tower; it was said that the significant funding allotted for the project (millions of dollars) could have been better placed into the health and education systems, and that the structure could have been better designed aesthetically.

The Perth Convention Exhibition Centre

The Perth Convention Exhibition Centre opened in September 2004. Situated on the river foreshore, only a short walk from the CBD, the Centre is WA’s only purpose built convention, exhibition and meeting centre. It can cater for functions of up to 2500 delegates.

The Centre is expected to attract increased tourism for the state. It is jocularly referred to as ‘The Hayshed’, because of its flat and extended design which originally was intended to resemble a gum leaf.

Perth Mint

Perth Mint is the oldest still-operating mint in Australia. One of two legal tender mints in Australia, the other is in Canberra.

It is open to the public 7 days a week and includes displays and the Perth Mint Shop which buys and sells precious metal proof quality gold and silver coins, bullion, nuggets and jewellery

Islands off the coast of Perth

There are a few islands off the coast of Perth, notably Rottnest Island, a significant tourist attraction.

Other nearby islands include Garden Island (home to a naval base), Carnac Island, Seal Island and Penguin Island. It is possible to walk from the mainland to Penguin Island at low tide. All of these Islands are ‘A’ class nature reserves with restricted access.

The deep shipping channel between Perth and these islands is called Gage Roads, the site of the America’s Cup yachting challenge in 1987.

Fremantle

The historical port city of Fremantle is located at the mouth of the Swan River, and is home to many attractions including Fremantle Prison and the mammoth newly-constructed Western Australian Maritime Museum. Located on the dock at Victoria Quay, the museum houses ‘Australia II, the yacht which won Australia the America’s Cup in 1983. Also in Fremantle is the Maritime Museum shipwreck galleries, with recovered artifacts and part of the hull of the shipwrecked Dutch ship Batavia, from hundreds of years ago. A more recent vessel, the Oberon class submarine the HMAS Ovens has been retired next to the Maritime Museum.

Fremantle (or ‘Freo’ as the locals call it) is renowned both locally, nationally and internationally for it’s easy-going, laid-back lifestyle. Cafes are the heart and soul of Freo, and one cannot visit Fremantle without going to the Fremantle Markets, before having one of the many varieties of coffee on the city’s infamous Capuccino Strip – South Terrace. There are numerous arts and crafts stores to suit all tastes and budgets. Fremantle is well-known for its local Arts scene.

At nightfall, Fremantle is a music-lovers’ paradise. Venues such as the Fly by Night Club and the Newport Hotel offer intimate, but venerable paradises for concerts, other events, or merely chilling out. Fremantle showcases the best in local and international talent. In addition, Fremantle offers many opportunities for clubbing with venues as the Harbourside, Millennium and the Metro.

Other must-see attractions include the Fremantle Arts Centre, as well as the historic precinct around the Round House – Western Australia’s earliest remaining building.

The Aquarium of Western Australia

Perth is home to Australia’s largest underwater walk-through aquarium, AQWA (The Aquarium of Western Australia), at Hillarys Boat Harbour, about 20 km North of Perth.

AQWA first opened in 1988 as Underwater World, but changed its name in 2001 to emphasis it’s links to Western Australia and to avoid confusion with the Underwater World in Singapore, has over 400 species of marine life including fish, sharks, fur seals, sea dragons, turtles, crustaceans and stingrays in a natural like environment.

Following the closure of the Atlantis Marine Park in Yanchep, Underwater World was the home to performing sealions and dolphins. In late December 1999 all of Underwater World’s dolphins died, with forensic tests revealling that the cause of death was deliberate poisoning. AQWA is also used for rehabilitation of injured or sick sea creatures, mainly sea lions, turtles and seals.

Whiteman Park

Whiteman Park is situated in picturesque bushland 25 minutes North East from the City Centre, it forms the western boundary of the Swan Valley wine region. The Park covers an area of more than 42 square kilometres (16 mi ²) with nearly half of this classified as high value conservation bushland or wetland. The Park also protects the southern portion of the Gnangara Water Mound – a large underground water source that supplies up to 40% of metropolitan Perth’s drinking water.

The Park takes its name from Mr Lew Whiteman (1903-1994), a prominent local identity and enthusiastic collector of artifacts. His family settled in Guildford from England in the late 19th century and Lew acquired some land around Mussel Pool in the 1940s. This, and other land held by a variety of private owners, was purchased by the State Government in 1978 and combined to form Whiteman Park.

All native wildlife in the Park is protected and more than 100 bird species have been identified. Along with 32 reptile, 7 amphibian and 8 mammals. The Caversham Wildlife Park, containing over 2000 animals and birds of 200 different species, recently moved into an area of park near the Village. There are also a number different collections of transport and machinary equipment as well as working historical tram and Rail lines

Swan Valley Wine Region

The Swan Valley wine region is approximately 16km East of Perth and is Western Australia’s oldest established wine region. It is home to over 35 wineries, many of which have restaurants or cellar-door facilities that are open to the public. Bus and boat tours of the swan valley run regularly from the city.

Perth Beaches

Relatively warm water and mild to large swells make beach-going a popular activity during the warmer months of the year.

Perth’s Indian Ocean beaches stretch for 30km north of the Swan River. There are also inshore beaches along the Swan River at Crawley, Nedlands, Peppermint Grove and Mosman Bay on the north shore, and Como, Canning Bridge and Applecross on the south.

Swimming beaches include the popularCottesloe , near the Cottesloe train station, City Beach, Swanbourne Free Beach, which has nude bathing, Scarborough Trigg and Hillarys.

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The first human habitation of Australia is estimated to have occurred between 42,000 and 48,000 years ago. The first Australians were the ancestors of the current Indigenous Australians; they arrived via land bridges and short sea-crossings from present-day Southeast Asia. Most of these people were hunter-gatherers, with a complex oral culture and spiritual values based on reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, inhabited the Torres Strait Islands and parts of far-north Queensland; they possess distinct cultural practices from the Aborigines.

The first undisputed recorded European sighting of the Australian continent was made by the Dutch navigator Willem Jansz, who sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in 1606. During the 17th century, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines of what they called New Holland, but made no attempt at settlement. In 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast of Australia, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Britain. The expedition’s discoveries provided impetus for the establishment of a penal colony there following the loss of the American colonies that had previously filled that role.
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