OK! Some good news and I get to relax a little after a month of nail biting. I know when the shipment will arrive. The shippers say the vessel will arrive in Sydney harbour on Jan. 13 and they gave me the name of the local company who will be delivering it (and the agent and his number). Well, they gave me the name of the ship but it was too complicated. heh If I need it I can call them back.

Yes it's still like 3 weeks off, but at least we have some concrete information and I'm not making up worst-case scenarios in my head. Now, the lessons learned are:

1)Get the quote solid and everything paid for before you leave. Don't give them a chance to gouge (and, more annoyingly, delay) you later when you're 12,000 km away. I kind of got caught in a situation where this became unavoidable (due to a clueless pickup driver), but I think I would have just made him wait, in hindsight.

2)Ship by air. It's a shitload faster. And find out who the actual shipper is before they show up. Often you're dealing with a sales agent and the actual shipping company will be someone else. And sales people don't give a hoot about you once the deal is done. Make sure you can contact the shipper directly.