snakey Posted June 29, 2015 Report Share Posted June 29, 2015 Hi all,My wife and I are off to Melbourne in August.The company I work for has offered us a 20ft container of shipping and a substantial air freight allowance.We have been getting rid of items with the idea of starting afresh in Melbourne but given the shipping allowance we thought it best to purchase a number of goods that are much cheaper here than buying there.It would be great to get views on what items are best to take across.So far we have the following:- Linen (ensure extra length for Aussie beds)- Good mattress- Clothing, shoes, sports equipment, etc- Furniture (beds, tables, chairs, etc)- Kitchen stuff (plates, pots, pans, etc)Any advice would be great. Thank you 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPanda Posted June 30, 2015 Report Share Posted June 30, 2015 Hi snakey,having recently come back from two weeks in Melbourne I would advise caution on the clothes part. Yes their clothes are expensive for us, but when it comes to winter clothing they have things that look the same but certainly don't work the same. The winter is very cold, and can be windy. So they have things like Australian merino wool undergarments, trust me, they are worth the hype(even my sister in law in England wears them, imported from Australia). And their winter clothing is also generally a bit thicker/denser woven or made of warmer materials. Even though they might look the same. I think summer clothing will be no problem.But bedlinen and toweling are very expensive. The bedlinen might be worth the price, since they have much higher thread counts than we are used to, but from what I've seen the towels are the same as here, just expensive.Happy packing! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansaPlease Posted June 30, 2015 Report Share Posted June 30, 2015 This might sound strange, but if you're into braaing, I would consider putting a brand new decent SA made steel braai into your container. (New because you don't want the scrutiny of having to clean it, rust, etc)They have plenty of options here, but nothing like some of the beasts I've used back home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanniewagnie Posted July 1, 2015 Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 Do NOT bring your gas bottle - they will refuse to refill it here... And Sell your printer in SA, the cartridges here do not work on our's... Even after the region settings etc was done, still refuses to print. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanTonderFam Posted July 1, 2015 Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 Good day,Please can you advise me if it is cheaper to ship most of your furniture from SA or is it better to replace once you arrive in OZ?Not sure what is the best option.Thank youManie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rozellem Posted July 1, 2015 Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 I would second the braai stuff. Even if you only throw in a new stainless steel "toe knyp rooster". I still buy the odd duvet set ( at MrPrice Home) when I go to RSA, just because I like their designs. I would pack a few of them, but dont go ballistic, because seriously, how often do you "use up" a duvet cover and pillows. If you do, you are more in need of a pedicure than any thing else If you have 3-4 duvet covers and pillows per bed, that you use in rotation, you are surely set for the next 15+ years. A duvet cover does not have to fit the bed size 110%, so the Aussie sizes are irrelevant there. It is only applicable when you talk about buying fitted sheets and those are not very expensive and readily available in Aus. Remember that you are going to need flannelette sheets for a good chunk of the year. BriD (one of the formites) have just written a post on how she is chucking out all the things she brought over and what a waste it was bringing it. We brought 15 boxes and have never regretted that decision. But, if they are paying for a 20 ft container, it would be silly not to pack it to the brim. Yes, buy stacks of towels and tea towels and the like so you never have to buy again. I would pack decent bicycles too, they are cheaper in RSA. Please dont bring one of those massive couches people in RSA have, where you can fit 6 people in next to each other. But, do bring its two seater version. Bring the a decent mattress for yourself. Go to Boardmans and buy as much of the Brabantia range as you can get your hands on. Like their kitchen bins, bots and pans. I bought one of their stainless steel kitchen bins here, and it was just under $500. Sorry if I have confused you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansaPlease Posted July 1, 2015 Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 Good day,Please can you advise me if it is cheaper to ship most of your furniture from SA or is it better to replace once you arrive in OZ?Not sure what is the best option.Thank youManieDefinitely cheaper to ship good quality stuff from SA, however, this may not be the best option because you may not know what sort of a house you end up in, so your stuff may not fit well. Unfortunately I don't think there is a one size fits all answer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardH Posted July 1, 2015 Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 Chuck a kreepie krawlie into your container, even if you are not sure if you will have a pool in AUS. They are much cheaper in SA and you can always sell it on gumtree if you realize you don't need it. If you have a weber braai or plan to have a weber braai then bring the accessories for them, they are much cheaper in SA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snakey Posted July 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2015 Thanks for all the awesome responses!!Will definitely be buying lots of kitchen stuff this weekend.Oh yeah and a braai stand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magenta Posted July 3, 2015 Report Share Posted July 3, 2015 Furniture here is expensive. We bought our Canon printer with from SA and just bought new cartridges, which is working fine. But when we arrived, we bought a cheap printer/scanner so that we could print and apply for rentals, and send copies of passports, etc for car purchases, etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanniewagnie Posted July 3, 2015 Report Share Posted July 3, 2015 We have a HP deskjet 2515. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanTonderFam Posted July 3, 2015 Report Share Posted July 3, 2015 Hi Guys,Thank you for all your inputs.Appreciate them.Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewAdventure Posted July 6, 2015 Report Share Posted July 6, 2015 @Kanniewagnie for the gas bottles, are you talking about Cadac skottle gas bottles as well as the gas heater bottles? We've got both, so not sure if we need to get rid of both before we come Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunnyskies Posted July 6, 2015 Report Share Posted July 6, 2015 Don't bother bringing any gas bottles. They are very strict on the age of the bottle here and the connection is different so you will struggle to fill it. Also, I believe gas heaters like you get in South Africa are illegal due to the fire hazard. Bring your oil heaters if you have. We left all our heaters behind and never missed them. In Victoria our houses all had ducted heating which is very efficient. In Queensland we use the split air conditioning when we feel that it's a bit chilly (not often). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanniewagnie Posted July 6, 2015 Report Share Posted July 6, 2015 @OnMyWay,We got a connector to fit the skottel and potjie-stand to the Ozzie gas-bottle which we bought here, but the connector is thin and feels a bit flimsy when the potjie rests on the stand.The Cadac gas bottle we brought over is now useless, because 1. the Ozzie people don't want to take a chance to fill a 'forreign' bottle which they did not certify as safe; and 2. You cannot get a connector to fill the bottle anywhere, because the size is different here.So I would just sell the SA bottles and accesories and get new ones here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewAdventure Posted July 7, 2015 Report Share Posted July 7, 2015 Thanks @Kanniewagnie and @Sunnyskies, guess we'll just sell them or donate to a relative or friend then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WayneAndMel Posted February 20, 2017 Report Share Posted February 20, 2017 I'm just bumping this old thread up as a reminder on electronic goods regional settings. We got caught out on the region settings with our PlayStation which we use for Blu-ray and DVD movies. We were casually told by several people in SA that it was region free but that was clearly bunk as we discovered after we bought a DVD video for our oldest son to watch. So watch out with PS3's, PS4's and probably Xbox's: it'd probably be best to sell them and their games in SA too. However we did find a multi-region blu-ray player easily on this side so we can still play all our video/movie region 2 (SA) DVD's and Blu-rays. Still, sadly now the PS goes into a cupboard because we can't sell it here and I'm not in the mood to hassle with trying to crack the settings as I've played with similar things in the past to my own detriment You can also get away with DVD drives and similar for PC's/laptops. I was prompted by Windows that if I wanted to view the discs contents I could change the region settings. However I could only change them back and forth 4 times in total. I'm not sure if that applies to install discs for Windows or other applications like MS Office so I'll have to be cautious on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eva Posted February 27, 2017 Report Share Posted February 27, 2017 On 2/21/2017 at 0:16 AM, WayneAndMel said: I'm just bumping this old thread up as a reminder on electronic goods regional settings. We got caught out on the region settings with our PlayStation which we use for Blu-ray and DVD movies. We were casually told by several people in SA that it was region free but that was clearly bunk as we discovered after we bought a DVD video for our oldest son to watch. So watch out with PS3's, PS4's and probably Xbox's: it'd probably be best to sell them and their games in SA too. However we did find a multi-region blu-ray player easily on this side so we can still play all our video/movie region 2 (SA) DVD's and Blu-rays. Still, sadly now the PS goes into a cupboard because we can't sell it here and I'm not in the mood to hassle with trying to crack the settings as I've played with similar things in the past to my own detriment You can also get away with DVD drives and similar for PC's/laptops. I was prompted by Windows that if I wanted to view the discs contents I could change the region settings. However I could only change them back and forth 4 times in total. I'm not sure if that applies to install discs for Windows or other applications like MS Office so I'll have to be cautious on that. You can set your DVD player to 0 (I think it is) which is region free. Google is your friend, if you look up how to change the setting of your brand of machine it is really simple to do. When we still lived in RSA our local DVD Hire shop had DVD's from the USA and they had a little print out for each brand to change the setting that they gave you when you hired movies. Easy peasy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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