11. Council Pick Up

Once we had a house to rent and knew where we would be living we got in touch with the furniture removal company to tell them our new address. We were very disappointed to learn that our furniture was still in a warehouse in South Africa. We were told that as we had negotiated to have a shared container and that there had been no one else wanting to send their furniture to Sydney we would, unless we wanted to pay the extra costs, have to just wait until the container was filled so that our belongings could be sent on their way. We found this rather hard to believe, as we were sure that the majority of the people who move from South Africa to Australia would use Sydney as their port of entry even if they did not intend living in the city. Unfortunately when one is so far away there is nothing much one can do, so we just had to accept it and ask that they sent our goods as soon as possible. It was half way through January and they told us to expect delivery about Easter time.

As I have said before the houses in Australia have stoves and curtains so these were not a problem and we had just bought a brand new bed and a new fridge. Dominic gave me a small dinner service and couple we had met at Dominic’s church offered to lend us a kettle, some pots and pans and a radio so we were getting somewhere. Then we learnt about Council Pick Up. When people in Australia have things that they no longer want they put it outside their house and the Council will collect it and dispose of it. If anyone passing by sees something that they would like amongst all the refuse piled up ready for removal they can if they wish take it for themselves. There are often television sets, computers, bicycles, mattresses, chairs, tables, old fridges, microwave ovens and all sorts of other household items. Dominic had a dinning room table and four chairs that he had picked up from the council pick up and he offered them to us until our own furniture arrived. It was then we realised that there are often useful things to be had along the road if one took the trouble to look properly. While in the car with Siân one afternoon we spotted a couple of lounge chairs. Feeling a little embarrassed we got out and had a look at them. They were in fair condition and so we loaded them into the car and took them. When we got back to Cowan we unloaded them at Jonathan’s house. We felt pretty pleased with our acquisitions and continued to look at the piles of refuse put out for the Council in Cowan. Across the road we saw that some people had decided to throw out their garden chairs. Having done this once before we felt a little bolder now and went and inspected everything that was on offer. There were four plastic chairs and three aluminium ones. We collected these and stacked them on Jonathan’s veranda along with our two lounge chairs.

Now we were ready to move, we had a bed to sleep on, chairs to sit on, a table, fridge, a kettle and pots, pans and dishes so what else did we need. Dominic arranged to borrow a trailer from a friend and Saturday 18th January was designated as the day we would move.