17) Our furniture Arrives

On April 3rd we got a telephone call to say that the ship that was carrying our furniture had arrived in Sydney and once it had been through quarantine we could expect it to be delivered on April 17th. When it had been packed on 27th November we had been told to expect it in 12 weeks so we were disappointed that it had taken 20 weeks. Now that it was here we were just so happy to see all our things that we forgot how long it had taken to get to us.

During the two weeks that our belongings were in quarantine we were contacted by a local removal firm, or as the Australians say a ‘removalist’, who asked us a great number of questions about the layout of our home. How close could the van get to the door? How many steps would the furniture have to be carried up, how wide were the steps and doors and all that sort of thing. I wondered if they would refuse to deliver our goods if they did not like the conditions but Jonny realised that if it was going to be hard to unpack the van they would have to send extra staff and extra trolleys and of course charge us extra money. When we had paid for the removal in South Africa we had only paid for delivery to Sydney harbour and we expected to have to pay for our things to get from the docks to us. I think it cost us about $350 to get it to the Central Coast.

We were a little concerned how they would manage to get our things into our house but we need not have worried. The two young men were fit and strong and had no trouble what so ever getting it up the stairs and into place. They were both from New Zealand and spoke with nostalgia of there home country but agreed that wages and conditions were better in Australia and so they were very pleased to be here and working here. They worked very quickly and in no time at all had the large furniture in place and had removed the protective cardboard wrapping. They put all our boxes wherever we wanted them and after joining us for a cup of tea they left, taking all the surplus packaging and leaving us with a gift hamper from their company. It contained a collection of tinned foods and some cleaning materials, which I thought was a very kind thought on the part of the removalists.

It was good to see all our things again. The lounge suit we bought when we lived in Chingola, the dining room suit we bought when we lived in Mabelreign. We bought one of our desks when we lived in Hatfield and we bought our chests of draws then too. The bedroom suit reminds me of our time in Witbank and as various ornaments and things were unpacked they brought back many memories of places we had been and people we had known. We were very lucky that there were hardly any breakages; a couple of tumblers was all. So we were pleased we had decided not to pay for insurance and take the chance that it would get here safely, we had felt that it is not often ships sink and we were confident that our goods would be fine.