transporting fish from mackay to brisbane

[bustaonenut]

We've booked a 3 day charter out of mackay and i was wondering how people bring back there fish when they go on extended charters.

The plan was to drive up there and take our eskies with us but it is almost as cheap to fly up rather than driving the 1000km. I dont think we can take them on the plane because of the weight and size so maybe putting them on a truck or something.

Has anyone done something similar or know of a transport company that will deliver from mackay to brisbane

[JRBK]

Bustaonenut,
I've flown up to mackay to go fishing with mates, and brought fish home no worries.
So long as they're iced down, frozen, packed up properly & securely in the esky, i didn't have a drama at all. Virgin Blue was fine about then. The esky just went in as part of the bulk luggage.

Coming back from Solomon Islands was totally different tho, as we had to go through immigration, had to make sure we had all the correct papers. Worse thing was tho, not allowed to have the skins on, so i'm sure as anything we brought back barracuda instead of wahoo and others we caught over there.

I'd have no dramas flying to mackay again and bring fish back. If you were concerned, give them a ring. I rang them a while ago to find out rod tube max lengths, they couldn't of helped me more than what they did. Fantastic service.

Mark

[black_sheep]

Same experience. Flown back from Townsville and Cairns with fish in cheap foam esky. Fish must be frozen and box sealed.

I thought we couldn't have ice on the fish though?? - check that. The buggage compartment is not pressurised so at altitude, they stay frozen.

As JRBK said, it goes as part of your luggage so you will pay extra once you go over 20kgs.

[stonecold]

Busta..check with the company your flying with. We came home from Darwin last year with Virgin, they insisted on aviation approved eskies, (basically a foam box). We fished with Arafura Bluewater and they provided the boxes, froze the fish, packed the boxes and sealed them according to the aviation specs. Nothing you or I couldnt do but you know how anal aviation companies are, (with good reason). Also check your lugage weights well before you get to the airport. Virgin was going to charge me $8-12kg (cant remember which) but it equated to $800 for fish to come home from Darwin. The little girl behind the counter seemed less than impressed when I offered to leave it in the bin out from of the terminal as that was 4 times what it cost for my ticket. Luckily I had 5 friends coming home 3 days later. They took the fish back to the freezer and flew it home later in the week wth their lugage.....free!

[Noelm]

I have always been advised to have fish frozen as ice will not be allowed on board, I have no idea why, but I have bought fish from Brisbane and the Sunshine coast lots of times, as well as frozen prawns and stuff, never had a drama, and always packed in foam eskies as I was told. Mind you one time I had a frozen Sweetlip in my carry on bag, the Xray guy asked me "what is that?", I said "a fish" he just laughed and sent me through, that was before Terrorists and stuff though!

[Fish_gutz]

There is a member on here called DANTREN who has a few of the approved foam boxes for about $5 each if I can remember correctly. just pm him and I`m sure he`ll be keen to help you out. no ice on the plane is correct we just froze all ours down and they were all still frozen from townsville to brissy. hope this helps.
Andrew

[Noelm]

so it would seem then that ice is a no no, now can anyone tell us/me why, maybe it might melt and wet some Electronic "things" or what?

[Scott nthQld]

I just figure that ice may melt and the fishy water may find its way into other passengers luggage. Dry ice is a no no because it will pretty much explode due to the almost nil air pressure in the hold.

[Dicko]

I've taken a couple of whole barra (gutted) in my regular suitcase when ducking down to visit rel's. No-one said boo. (I didn't tell them either).

From frozen, wrap in a plastic bag, then several layers of newspaper, then inside a garbage bag. 3 or 4 hours traveling and flight time & they were still rock solid when unpacked. We were baking them whole the next day as part of a feed when we had a big get together so we left them defrost, but they would have been quite OK to put in a freezer again.

[madman1]

I flew from Bris to Mackay via Virgin with frozen fillets in a brocolli box last year with ice packed in two plastic bags. I sealed the box with gaffa tape to find the checkout chick wanted to sight my stock.

They supplied the tape to reseal it and off i went.

I have found pornstar worse than virgin by far.

At the end of the flight the box was damaged anyway. You will find they want the fillets frozen so the fluids dont leak in the case of a ruptured foam esky.

On the other hand, if you dont have that much to bring back, I have seen the miners bring back 40 litre eskies that have been taped up at the airport for transportation to Bris. Greyhound also do deliveries for bigger parcels.

[nickstock]

I send down fillets to my old man on the Sunny Coast.

I send approx 10 kgs of frozen fillets via Australian Air Express. I am not flying with them so it costs me approx $55 to send from Cairns to Brisbane. At about 6 bucks a kilo including freight it is still bloody cheap for Trout, Reds, Macs and Barra fillets.