To cut a long story short, we are no longer in HK and our visas have expired. I have a new job starting in Australia in the coming months and we will be relocating there, we are currently in Europe. The problem is that most of our belongings are in a storage unit in HK and it is impossible for us to be there physically to itemise what is there, what needs to be put in the bin, put together an inventory for shipping etc. I have an approximate idea of what is in the storage unit, but this is very rough and nowhere near what is required for inventory/shipping purposes. I have a few questions relating to this and if anyone can shed light on any of them that would be greatly appreciated!
1. Has anyone else been in this situation? What is the best way of moving this stuff from HK to Australia when we are not able to be in HK in person? Maybe a company offers some kind of service here? I have a reasonable but not amazing relocation package so want to keep costs down if possible. In an ideal world I would have sorted through this stuff before shipping it, as some of it is doubtless for the bin, but this can't really be done in this situation can it, and so I might have to ship it all to Australia?
2. What about shipping items to Australia that could be restricted, for example wooden furniture / antique items / wicker basket etc? I have read that Australia is quite strict about these kinds of items, and accepts certification of certain kinds of fumigation, extensive cleaning etc. How would we deal with that, or determining wood type or whatever, considering that we can't be there physically? The items I have in mind are definitely not for throwing away.
3. Does anyone have any experience of import taxes when shipping from HK to Australia, and how to quantify these?
4. We will probably ship these items before we know our Australian address, and before we arrive in Australia. What should be the destination address? Perhaps a storage unit?
Thanks in advance for any ideas!