JACK DOBSON
Dobbo Dow n Under
Christmas came several weeks early for me this year. After seven agonising weeks at sea, Grandma (my Series IIA V8) finally arrived in Sydney and she has now been in my custody for a couple of weeks. It still has not truly sunk in that she is here. Until her arrival it had been seven years since I last drove her. Little did I know that my next stint behind the wheel would be bump-starting her in reverse down off the back of a recovery truck on the other side of the world. I had forgotten how severe her clutch is, either on or off, there is no in between!
Now I know that very few of you are going to ship a vehicle to the other side of the world, but I thought it might be worth sharing some of my experience because, well, you never know! I will start with saying, it really is not as hard as you might think, but it is expensive and so, unless your vehicle is extremely rare or, as in my case, of sentimental value, shipping to Australia does not make great economic sense.
Before going ahead with shipping, I first had to apply for Vehicle Import Approval, as failure to do so will result in death. Just kidding, it is in fact far worse than that: they warn that your vehicle could be destroyed if it arrives here without the approval in place. It took me a month to get the approval and actually it was a reasonably painless experience once I had found the V5…
Once armed with the approval it was time to choose a shipping agent. This was the hardest part of the process (harder even than finding the V5) as I had no idea which company to use. There are two ways you can ship a vehicle: rollon / roll-off and containerised. Roll-on / roll-off is as the name indicates – the vehicle is simply rolled, or driven, onto the ship (having wheels helps). Now this might conjure up images of your precious car being strapped down on the open deck, but actually they are stored below deck so they are not exposed to elements while in transit on the high seas (I had images of waves lashing across my poor Land Rover). With containerised shipping, just in case you need the clarification, the vehicle is sealed inside a container. In terms of shipping to Australia, in both instances, vehicles are transferred to another ship partway through.
For my own piece of mind, while more expensive, I decided it would be better to go with a container. There was also a rumour that Grandma could double-up with a Lotus, which would provide her with company and, of course, help bring the price down.
All the shipping agents I approached provided similar quotes, and in the end I opted to use EDI International Freight Management as they were by far the most helpful and understanding of someone that had no idea what they were talking about!
I tracked Grandma all the way to Australia, it was fascinating and slightly terrifying seeing how many ships are out there. It took a week to get her unloaded, inspected by Customs and through quarantine. This was perhaps the most nerve-racking part of the process; recently there has been increased focus on vehicles potentially containing asbestos components (typically things like brakes and gaskets) and the onus is on the importer to prove the vehicle is free of asbestos. If your vehicle gets flagged, you have to arrange laboratory testing and possible removal, while paying substantial storage fees, of course. With great relief Grandma was deemed non-suspicious and was given the all-clear.
It was pretty emotional seeing her get wheeled out from quarantine. Forgetting where I was, I rushed forward with arms outstretched before Customs security swiftly told me to stand back.
She is now safely installed in her new home on Sydney’s Northern Beaches and I am going to spare her embarrassment by not mentioning how she set off all the smoke alarms upon her arrival. Over the past few weeks we have been re-acquainting ourselves. There is nothing quite like that familiarity of lying underneath a Land Rover with rust and mud falling into your eyes whilst trying to clean up the chassis with a wire brush. It really is quite funny to think 20 years ago I was doing the exact same thing, albeit not in 40 degree heat.
How has she fared in the last seven years and what are the plans for her resurrection? Well, while there is a lot of surface rust on the chassis, it is not beyond redemption and Bearmach were kind enough to include a rescue package of spare parts to help get her roadworthy (those of you that follow my Instagram account@ j ac ku ar_land_r over will have seen my battle with the chassis bushes – my hands currently look like those of a bareknuckle fighter). The plan is a full restoration, which will include replacing the bulkhead (I have already sourced a rustfree example that is a thing of beauty) and treating her to a full respray, which represents a bit of a personal challenge because the last time I painted her it was a complete disaster!
“There is nothing like lying underneath a Land Rover with rust and mud falling into your eyes”