Cost of shipping container hire - Queensland to Tasmania

We have booked our shipping container hire.
After shopping around, we opted to go with Anglia Containers.
They had no problem accommodating our request for a Highcube container (which gives more room at no extra cost). A Standard 20' shipping container gives you 33.2m3 of space, whereas the Highcube offers 37.4m3, so we have opted for that additional bit of room.



Standard vs Highcube container

 

Anglia Containers offer a loading service, but we have decided to load and unload the container ourselves. 
In terms of cost, as per their invoice:

"To deliver one lease 20' shipping container to Qld for you to load; to relocate container to Tasmania for you to unload; to recover our container $4,389.00 (including GST)"

For that, you will have the container for a total of 28 days hire (plus transit time).
You can 'split' this time however you want. We have chosen 14 days access to pack it prior to the move .... after that it's picked up and spends about 6 days in transit from Queensland to Tasmania ... and a further two weeks to unpack it before it gets collected from our new Tasmanian abode.
In moving from the mainland to Tasmania, you will also need to complete a Tasmania Quarantine Declaration and submit this document direct to Quarantine prior to the container leaving Queensland. Your shipping company of choice will also need a copy of the completed form for their records. Anglia Containers have offered assistance, if necessary, if we need any help completing the form.

Shipping Container Hire Tips

• Give the hire company as much notice as you can - due to the logistics involved in moving shipping containers around the country, companies appreciate a bit of notice as it makes forward planning easier for them
• You need more room than you think you will for the delivery - HEIGHT - wherever you plan to get the container delivered to, you will need at least 4.5 m height clearance (check for overhanging branches, cables) to accommodate the raised tilt tray
• You need more room than you think you will for the delivery - LENGTH - don't just measure up your front or side yard to see if the container fits; you also need room to unload it - you need room for a truck to reverse, tilt the tray up and slide the container off the back
• Invest in a decent padlock - this is the thing that will be keeping all your worldly belongings safe so consider spending more than $10 on it
• Don't assume you have insurance cover if something goes wrong - check to see if your Home Contents Insurance policy covers goods in transit; if not, you may need to consider getting separate transit insurance
• You may need to provide your own furniture blankets / strapping - some companies do offer a hire service, but not all. Check to see whether you need to buy or hire

The container hire is the big ticket item from our moving checklist. Also on the list are Airline tickets (including cats!), ferry, fuel & accommodation and a hire car (just to name a few)
We'll keep you updated with the moving arrangements and costs as we go.
Until then
V&A

Packing, storing & preparation - without spending a fortune

What needs to be done before we move?
"Pack" would be high on the list.
We had no desire to outlay funds on shiny new cardboard boxes, so we were fortunate to find a reliable source of used cardboard boxes. As the boxes were originally used to ship music equipment to a store, they are made from a double layer of cardboard for added strength. The store would otherwise dispose of them to a recycling company, so they came at no cost to us.
Fortunately a fair portion of our belongings have been packed since September 2014, so there is much less to pack this time around. 
Our previous house sold much quicker than we had anticipated, and we needed to find urgent accommodation in Qld before we relocated interstate. It also had to be somewhere we could stay on a month-to-month basis as Victoria was committed to seeing two projects at her work through to completion in August 2015, and we were yet to find a house to buy in Tasmania.
The apartment beneath the cafe where we found ourselves is much smaller than the house we left. That meant there was a lot of furniture that we re homed at very reasonable prices as we had nowhere to keep it ... if we didn't need it, we didn't take it.
With little room to display anything in the apartment, all of Viktoria's books (all 23 boxes of them) have remained mothballed and packed.
We are hiring a shipping container to move our household belongings from Queensland to Tasmania, but will be loading and unloading the container ourselves, as this was a considerable cost saving.
Our thoughts have therefore turned to how best to pack everything into the container so it doesn't slide everywhere, and to minimise 'waste' moving materials.
For the larger pieces of furniture and white goods we purchased those 'single use' felt blankets.



While these blankets may only survive one outing in their life as a furniture blanket, they are:

1. relatively inexpensive ($9.96 each at Bunnings)
2. made from recycled materials
3. perfect for re-proposing as weed control mats at the new house.

The other main packing expense was decent quality ratchet straps to secure the load inside the shipping container.
The Android tracked down some 9m long x 50mm wide straps ($155.00 for 10 of them) from a Brisbane seller on eBay. With good friends who create monumental public artworks, the straps will also be destined for a new life once we're finished.
We will need to get one more lot of boxes from the store to cater for the 'daily use' items that we will need to pack closer to the move date. With such a long lead time, we are mildly optimistic that we will be prepared.
While the Android may not be dreaming of electric sheep, he is re-running packing scenarios and furniture arrangements in anticipation of the day in August that the container arrives. Details of the costs and logistics of the shipping container will be provided shortly.
Until then,
We remain
V&A

A new day, a new blog.
We've had a slight change of focus from building a house, to renovating an existing house.
It's been a fascinating, frustrating, expensive, stressful, exciting but ultimately unfulfilled journey which got us to this point.
Rather than bore you with the details, you can read about it in all it's hideous glory at  The Time Traveller's Guide to Building a House.
Suffice to say, the three years spent planning to build a house in Tasmania have come to nought. After much soul-searching (not to mention some terrifying accounting) in the latter part of 2014, we have come through bigger and stronger and more determined to pursue our plan to move from mainland Australia to the island State of Tasmania.
We have also managed to acquire a house, which is rather helpful in our quest.
Over the coming months we will track the progress of our move to Tasmania and how we manage it, our experiences with renovating our 1970's brick monstrosity, and what we end up doing for work.
At this stage, we are taking stock of our belongings and preparing for our move.
We hope you will enjoy the ride.

V&A