RECEIVING MAIL WHILE TRAVELLING AUSTRALIA

Preparing to travel Australia, whether it’s a half lap, full lap or indefinitely like us, can be a bit hectic. There is a lot to think about and organize before you set off. How to receive mail and parcels on the road, was one of the many things keeping my mind buzzing, and me awake at night in the lead up to leaving. Once we had set it all up and left, it was, like most things, way simpler than I thought it would be. So let me break it down for you below, in step-by-step instructions, so you can tick this one thing off the list and hopefully get some rest.

BEFORE YOU LEAVE:

1. Decide on a ‘care of’ address you can use while your away. You will need to update the bank, tax office, department of transport, etc. with your care of address, so nothing important goes to your old address. A friend or family members address will work or a PO Box if you have one.

2. Cancel all utilities accounts you will no longer need i.e., shire rates, telephone, and the likes.

3. For the accounts you cannot cancel, create an online account, and log on to update your address with your chosen care of address. While your there, go to the correspondence preferences, make sure your email is up to date, and select online mail only. This will limit the amount of mail accumulating for you while you are away. Any physical mail that goes out, I just ask my friend to send a picture of it, and then most of it can be destroyed, anything important gets forwarded to us.

4. For any ongoing bills such as car rego and stuff, set them up as BPAY view with your online banking. You will get a notification when a bill arrives, you can then view and pay it all from the one place, in your online banking app.

5. A couple of weeks before you leave, create an account with Australia post and pay for mail redirection to your care of address. We thought 3 months was plenty. This will catch anything you have missed, and any mail that was in the transition period.

6. Download the Aus post app to your mobile phone and log on.

ONCE YOU HAVE HIT THE ROAD:

Ok so you are on the road and you want to order something online, or its your birthday, and someone wants to send you a card or a parcel, what do you do? It does take a little bit of forward planning, you will need to know roughly where you will be in about 2-4 weeks’ time, but do not worry if you order something and plans change, it can be fixed.

1. Log on to the Aus post app.

2. Click on ‘account’ along the bottom bar.

3. Click on ‘add a delivery address.’

4. Select ‘parcel collect.’

5. Search for the location where you think you will be in about 2 weeks’ time. Allow a little more for remote areas, WA, and the NT.

6. Select a post office in that area and hit ‘add parcel collect address.’

7. You will then be given the address, along with your unique parcel collect number. Do not forget to pop that number on the address, this is what will initiate a notification when the parcel has arrived and help you track it or forward it should you need to.

That is it, your parcel will go to the post office for you, and they will hold it for 2 weeks. I have personally not had one returned to sender. If you do not think you will arrive in time, simply contact the post office and they will usually hold it longer for you. If your plans change, you can contact the post office or Australia post and ask them to redirect it for you once it has arrived. There may be a small charge for this. I have had to do this twice and have never been charged to forward mail.

HOT TIPS:

• Get tracking numbers and add them to your Aus post app so you know exactly where they are. Sometimes the parcel collect number does not always generate a notification in the app, so do not solely rely on that.

• You can also track parcels you are sending too.

  • Go to ‘track’ in the app.

  • Click on ‘add’.

  • Click on ‘scan code’.

  • Scan the QR code on your receipt once you have sent the parcel.

  • Name the parcel so you know what it is, sometimes you might be waiting on several or sending a few and they will all be tracked in the same page.

  • Voila! you can keep tabs on all your parcels.

Thanks for being here and reading this post, I hope it has helped in some way. If you found this useful, please subscribe to be notified about new posts and head to our socials, where I share more about travelling Aus with my family! If there is anything else you need answering, I am always looking for new post ideas so please get in touch via the contact page.