Packing Services near you

Transit insurance in Australia is a separate product from the removal itself. NSW consumer guidance states that removalists are not required by law to provide insurance for your property during a move, and describes transit cover as insuring goods while they are being packed and moved, including any storage. Queensland's guidance likewise explains that transit insurance covers damage or loss in transit as well as during packing and unpacking.

Read the policy for how it treats cartons you packed yourself. Policies commonly distinguish between goods packed by the carrier and goods packed by the owner, and it is normal for breakage inside an owner-packed carton to be covered only where there is visible external damage to the box. That is not a trick; it is the insurer declining to underwrite how carefully you wrapped a wine glass. If you want the strongest position on fragile items, have them packed by the crew who will carry them.

None of this displaces the Australian Consumer Law. The ACCC states that services must be carried out with an acceptable level of care and skill, must be fit for any stated purpose, and that the basic rights under the consumer guarantees cannot be taken away by anything a business says or does. If a professionally packed carton was crushed because the load was stacked badly, that is a care-and-skill question regardless of what the policy says about breakage.

Household removal vehicles carry general freight, not dangerous goods, so there is a standard list of things that come off the truck. Expect refusal for petrol, diesel, kerosene and two-stroke fuel, gas cylinders including barbecue bottles, aerosols, solvents, thinners, paint, pool chemicals, garden chemicals, fireworks, ammunition, and damaged or swollen lithium batteries. Fire extinguishers and oxygen bottles are usually refused as well. None of that is negotiable on the day, so plan to use, give away or lawfully dispose of these items in the weeks before the move.

If the move crosses a state or territory border, quarantine is the second filter and it applies to packed goods as much as to anything loose. Australian Interstate Quarantine warns travellers that there are restrictions on plants and produce from the orchard and vegetable garden, and on household potted plants including fruit trees, and notes that soil can carry harmful pests and diseases and that most states do not allow pot plants to be moved. It also points out that treatment options may be available for special plants but that there will be a cost if that option exists.

The practical consequence is that plants, garden soil, used pots, home-grown produce, honey and sometimes used outdoor equipment need to be dealt with before packing rather than discovered at an inspection point. Australian Interstate Quarantine directs people to call the destination state's number to find out what can and cannot be moved, and that call is the only reliable answer, because the restrictions differ between destinations and change with pest outbreaks.

Overloaded cartons are the most common and the most avoidable. A large box filled with books does not fail because of the box; it fails because nobody can carry it safely and it gets dragged, dropped and stacked badly. SafeWork NSW treats manual tasks involving high or sudden force, sustained force and awkward posture as hazardous, and an oversized carton manufactures all three. Dense goods belong in small boxes.

Under-filling causes the opposite problem. A part-empty carton collapses when something is stacked on it, so voids get filled with paper or soft goods until the box is firm to the touch and the lid closes flat. A carton with a domed top cannot be stacked, which means either it gets crushed or the crew loses a layer of truck space.

Then there are the small traps: bottles of liquid packed upright with no bag around them, candles and electronics left in a hot vehicle, knives packed loose, batteries left in torches and toys, and drawers left full so the item is too heavy to lift. Queensland's consumer guidance recommends preparing an inventory noting any scratches or dents and photographing items and boxes before the move, which is the single best habit for anyone doing their own packing.