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An In-Depth Look at the Shipping Process to Australia and New Zealand

Jun 15. 2021

Are you juggling with the enormity of the prospect of having your possessions shipped to the other side of the world? Does your to do list keep getting longer and longer? Well don’t worry Burke Bros Moving Group have for 40 years helped hundreds of families through the international moving process. We will help you plan the move from the UK to final destination in Australia or New Zealand. Whatever insurmountable problems are keeping you awake at night, don’t worry, Burke Bros have been there countless times. By calling in Burke Bros as international moving professionals your anxieties should fade away. Here we take an in depth look at the process of moving to Australia and moving to New Zealand.

We suggest you contact us approximately 12 weeks before you plane to leave the UK. Don’t leave it until the last moment. One of our international sales consultants will visit your home, or if you prefer will arrange an online virtual survey, to carry out a room by room survey of what you intend to ship.

There is a comprehensive list of items that should not be shipped for example: fireworks and other highly flammables, seeds, herbs, dried flowers, untreated animal skins, untreated wood and much more. Our international moving experts will give you a complete list. You will be surprised as to the lengths we will go to, to ensure the safe arrival of your possessions. We will utilise export quality cartons of varying sizes; book cartons, china and glass cartons, linen cartons even cycle cartons. Each piece of furniture will be individually wrapped using a high quality laminated material. We don’t just lose wrap furniture. We may have to make timber cases for any pianos, glass fronted furniture, clocks and maybe more.

Following the survey, we will be able to advise you on the most cost effective way of shipping your particular consignment to Australia or New Zealand. This will be a 20”or 40” container for your sole use and for this we would advise allowing approximately 9 weeks transit time. Alternatively it may be possible to ship your goods on a shared load basis; this means you share space in the container with other customers’ goods. This can be cost effective but the transit time is longer and we advise that this is approximately 12 weeks. Whether you opt for either a shared load or sole use container; we will advise you of an estimated time of arrival. We will be in your home for 2 to 4 days depending on the volume to be packed and wrapped.

Our international moving experts will give you guidance on customs regulations and the cleanliness of outside items. There must be absolutely no sign of outdoor debris on any item that has had contact with outside surfaces. For Australia and New Zealand, containers are off loaded into a partner’s warehouse for quarantine inspection; to ensure the goods being imported do not have any nasties which will affect the bio diversity of Australia and New Zealand.

During the packing and wrapping process in your home we will have prepared an inventory of what is being shipped. A couple of days before the quarantine clearance takes place on arrival, the inspector will have a copy of the inventory. They will highlight any items of possible concern with a view to looking more closely at these items with a particular concern as to the cleanliness of effects that have come into contact with outdoor surfaces eg foot ware of all types, cycles, garden tools, garden furniture and the like. If these items are not of the required degree of cleanliness, the inspector will order additional cleaning, possibly by fumigation or steam cleaning at extra cost. You must be in the country when customs clearance and quarantine inspection take place. These are two completely separate procedures. When customs and quarantine inspections have taken place, your goods will be carefully loaded on a road vehicle for the final leg of the journey to your new home.

Burke Bros service will include positioning all items into the appropriate rooms, unpacking cartons, unwrapping furniture, taking any items out of cases and taking away all the used materials. If you are not ready to receive your goods into residence then they can be stored either in the destination country or here in the UK prior to shipping.

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