Travelling home

You can book your travel online or through a travel agency.
Remember to:

• factor in any additional airport / flight taxes you may need to pay
• buy travel insurance
• check your passport and visa end dates and renew if necessary
• check if you need visas for any stop-overs and arrange them
• send travel plans to friends and family

• before your departure date, refer to your airlines website for on baggage allowances(including costs)
• be aware your carry-on luggage must meet size restrictions (refer to your airlines website)
• check the rules about what you can or can’t take in your carry-on luggage

• check your home country’s Embassy website about customs regulations for taking your belongings home, for example completing a tax declaration
• check what is required for packaging and transporting computers and other equipment

Many students have between 80 kg and 120 kg of freight. Consider how you plan to send your belongings home by air or sea. We do not recommend any specific freight company but here are some websites that might be useful:

• Baggage Masters: tel: 08 8352 1499
• Pack and Send tel: 1300 668 000
• Seven Seas: tel: 1300 216 698
• Uniair Cargo Australia: Specialises in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Adelaide tel: 0413 445 835
• you can also check in the Yellow Pages Air Cargo Services, Cargo Agents or Transport and Forwarding Agents

Will your agent provide packing boxes? If not, you can buy them from

• National Storage, 310 Sturt Road Marion (tel: 8377 0454)
• Kennards Self Storage, 617 Goodwood Road, Panorama (tel: 8177 2222)
• U-Store-It, 1268 South Road, Clovelly Park (tel: 8276 1166)

Here are some tips for packing

• use sturdy boxes or suitcases; do not use polystyrene or fruit boxes
• your name and destination address need to be in on each carton
• do not pack dangerous goods. For example aerosols, animal and plant material and batteries
• make packing lists for each box to make sure what is in each one when you receive it back home. Number your boxes and limit your weight to 30 kilograms per box
• pad fragile items well and mark the box ‘Fragile’ or use ‘Fragile’ tape
• pack electrical goods less than one year old separately and have the receipts with you as it makes customs clearance easier (you may be asked to prove that you have owned goods like electrical equipment for more than three months)

Collection

• check with your freight company about how you collect your items once they arrive
• baggage can take between 5–10 days by air and 6–10 weeks by sea to arrive at your home address
• make sure you have the shipping details for your baggage (including flight number, airline, shipping line), date of arrival and code you need to identify your belongings and contact details of the local agent in your country