From Dili, East Timor to Darwin, Australia - February, 2013

The company Perkins was bought by the massive Australian company TOLL. Their website provides the schedule for the Southbound shipping from Singapore via Dili to Darwin. This is updated every 10 to 14 days. Email correspondence worked out fine for us with them. Lenor Castulo speaks very good English but none of the local languages and is not too much acquainted with the procedures. If you are stuck with her contact her boss Mohd Azni (Baba).

When you get to Dili you need to clean your bike. You can get it done professionally by Troy, an Australian who used to work for Australian quarantine. But it is very expensive and if he is not doing it himself it might not be done as professional. When you stay at East Timor Backpackers (www.easttimorbackpackers.com) you can get a bucket with some cleaning material left from other bikers and they have a hose in the garden which you can use. Make sure you take off the major parts of your bike to clean underneath. Southeast Asian mud goes deep...

TOLL needs your carnet stamped. You can get it stamped when you get into East Timor at the border. Have you missed this, just get it stamped in and out at the harbour in Dili. Take the main entrance to the harbour area (do not go to the custom building down the road!), pass the gate and go to the second container to your right. The entrance is from the back of the container. They do all you need, including backdating your entry stamp so it fits with the Indonesian exit stamp. East Timor does not take part in the carnet, but TOLL Dili is convinced they need a copy of your East Timor entry and exit stamp.

TOLL will need copies of this, as well as of your passport. You can send it by email as well. Their new office (since January 2013 is quite far outside the city without a proper address. It's off the main road to the airport just before the airport (Kampung Merdeka, IHA, Llajr nia ko tuk, Comoro). East Timor Backpackers can help you to find them. Baba knows the Backpackers and might drop in there to see you as he is driving around a lot and not very often in the office & warehouse. They don't seem to like to book you on a vessel before you drop the bike off. Often the vessels omit Dili on their way back to Darwin as they already stop there on the way up North. Don't plan tight! When the bikes are clean you can bring them to the TOLL office & warehouse. If you don't want to do the leashing yourself they will order a company to do it for them which is ridiculous expensive (ca. 150 USD). You get straps at the Chinese Hardware shops on the way out to TOLL. Bargain tough!

They sent us two quotes, one per bike (LCL), the other one for the whole container (FCL). For two bikes there is no price difference, with three or four bikes you can save with booking FCL. Be aware that TOLL in Australia will treat the bikes as LCL anyway (and break down the costs for you), because of customs & quarantine. We paid:

in Dili (local costs only):

20 USD L.O.L.O. (Lift-On/Lift-Off) per container

35 USD Wharfage per container

80 USD Trucking charge within Dili per container

30 USD Documentation fee per bike

in Darwin (Ocean freight, BAF and East Timor Tax can be paid in Dili but only cash, by credit card in Darwin only):

147 AUD Ocean freight per bike (4 bikes in total)

51 AUD Bunker Adjustment Factor (BAF) per bike

4 AUD East Timor Tax per bike

118 AUD Darwin PSC (GST inc.) Volume per bike

1 AUD Port Security Surcharge GST per bike

75 AUD Documentation/Coordination charges per bike

When you arrive in Darwin you have to wait to get an ok from TOLL. Amber Huddlestone runs the international departement of TOLL in Darwin. They might send availability notices, but that doesn't count, you need a special email telling you, that you can arrange appointments with customs & quarantine:
1. Phone customs on 089806528 and explain to them. They then input something on their system (they have to do this before quarantine will be able to do anything).
2. Phone quarantine on 089207000 and get them to do their side. They will require a copy of:
- first page of carnet
- seaway bill
- tax invoice
You can mail them as attachment or drop them in at their office at the airport (bad bus connections into town!). Once they have processed that stuff they should be able to offer you a time for the quarantine inspection within the next one or two days. They will request payment at this point but can accept credit card over the phone.
3. Contact TOLL and inform them of the quarantine inspection time to ensure they can allocate space in their yard.

4. Contact customs to inform them of the quarantine inspection time so their officers can come down and stamp the carnet.

The appointment itself was easy. We had to book half an hour quarantine (150 AUD) for each bike and the time was sufficient for them. For extra time you have to pay more as well as for additional cleaning done by TOLL. They checked the tool box and the panniers and found some dirt in the bottom of one and vacuum cleaned it. Customs did not show up (quarantine promised to do step 4 for us but obviously they didn't), so we had to wait for customs to tick their box in the system before TOLL actually was able to release the bikes from their yard.

The whole procedure from arrival in Dili to get the bikes in Darwin took us nearly 2 months... Mainly because the vessel was omitting Dili twice. But even after the arrival of the vessel in Darwin it took 2 weeks until we actually got the bikes. It is a good idea to get to Darwin quickly if you are allowed to work in Australia or to WWOOF (www.wwoof.com.au), where you get free food and accommodation. If you don't want to get too far away from Darwin we recommend Henning Olsen & Family. It is a flower farm at the edge of Darwin Airport. Check in advance if he needs someone (08 89472324 or 08 89918014) by leaving a message on the his answering machine as he never answers the phone but calls you back.

Good luck!