Does it cost more to ship large appliances than to buy them in Australia?

We are currently contemplating moving our family of 4 from Christchurch to Melbourne.

Being a family of 4 we have invested a bit of money over the years in whiteware and furniture, not to mention our plasma TV.

I have considered selling most of our large stuff off and putting some belongings in the container with the car, but is it really too expensive to pay for a container to take a whole house full of items?

(BTW, the reason we are taking our car is because it is a classic BMW we have put a lot of love, time and money into and feel 'she' is worth paying to import.)

On that subject, and I'm happy to ask this separately, does anyone know how much it costs to ship a car RORO-roll on roll off?

Thanks in advance for all your help.

#1 response from graciedeska at 06:53 on Mon, 15 November 2010

Hmm tricky to answer for sure! We found appliances here were a bit cheaper, but we only had to buy a washing machine and dishwasher and some small appliances. The Good Guys and JBHiFi are some of the best places to buy whiteware and electronics and Ikea is great for furniture if you only need something cheap and cheerful. However, if you've got quite a few things it may be worth bringing them over. I think it'd be worth getting a quote from Crown on it as it really depends a lot on exactly what you've got. Their quotes are all inclusive.

I'm not sure how much it costs to ship a car RORO these days, but in some forum posts I found from 2008/2009 people were talking about $2,000 to $2,500 RORO and $4000 or so in a container. Prices might well be different in late 2010 though! I also read there are quite a few other costs involved once you get your car to Australia and that the whole exercise can be very expensive, so it would pay to do some thorough research.

Hope that helps )

#2 response from BP at 06:35 on Sat, 20 April 2013

If you are using a 20 foot container to ship your stuff , you should pack as much in as you can and take all the whiteware etc unless it is very old . If you aren't taking much household belongings then it would not be a good idea to take appliances . A 20 foot container cost me $7500 to shift a 3 bed house full of stuff last year to the gold coast . It is not at all a good idea to ship a car over as its is hugely expensive and the Aussies make it dliberately difficult with the paperwork !

Add Your Voice

Participate in this topic by posting a reply below.

Choose an alias

This is the name that will appear on your comment - choose anything you like but keep it clean!

Your answer/comment

All HTML tags will be stripped from your comment.

Spam alert: When submitting your question, you might be asked to prove that you are a human rather than a robot. Just complete the simple challenge to have your post submitted.

Follow This Topic

You are not following this forum topic. To be sent an email when a new post is made, you can follow it.

Have we helped you? You can help keep this site running!

Care To Share Your Experience Of Moving To Australia?

If you have recently moved to Australia and are happy to share your experience with others, we'd love to ask you a few questions by email. If this sounds like you, please contact us at hello@movetoaustralia.net and we will arrange it!

Lost? Take a look at our sitemap.

Feedback? Please Contact Us

Our goal is to make this guide the most useful resource available to Kiwis making the move to Australia. If you believe any of this information is unclear, incorrect, or out of date, please email us at hello@movetoaustralia.net.

Also, be sure to check the discussion forum for the latest information.

We appreciate all feedback :)