THz
Professional advice mainly due to the location is to give the job to an international home mover for them to collect, crate and ship to Oz then deliver directly to you and a waiting empty container that you've sourced locally in the meanwhile.
The bit about buying a container over there was an early idea. Dropped now. Seems the moving companies much prefer to use their own. I can see why.
International home movers do seem to be the best option. BUT many don't have commercial import/export licences, And since this was a commercial purchase, that licence is required. Red tape to the (non) rescue. Again.
Anyway, some do.
Btw, wanting a storage container here, is NOT to store the manuals. That would be a terrible idea. Shipping containers are moisture sponges, especially if there's a large water-absorbing thermal mass inside. Plus, impossible to access when the container is full. The container here is for shelved storage adjacent to a workshop.
General points from our discussion.....
Handling freight from that part of west NA is fraught with frustrations some of which are mentioned below.
Purchasing a container in the US may require additional certification before shipping companies will accept it as suitable for sea freight.
Yeah, i know about the certification grades. And really I don't need to use a sea-worthy (expensive) container for backyard storage. Another reason that idea is dropped.
Unlike downunder the availability of container swinglifts is rare therefore a trailer with container aboard may need to be parked in the facility for the duration of loading to which they may not agree.
20' container on truck, parked in facility - approved! Have spoken with them.
Crating the documents mechanizes the handling without the need to carry all documents up ramps and into the container on a trailer and doubles to get them off the floor.
Except I have to unload them myself at this end. One-person lift cardboard boxes it is. Also, too many manuals in a crate = more crush damage. I can reflatten the boxes and reuse them. I may also want to rebox portions of the library for more compact storage, after sorting.
Although Swift Cargo NZ said he has contacts in the SF part of the world he was not confident in their ability to pull this off in the timeframe required mainly due to the way they do things in that part of the States.
Fingers crossed,
the time constraint looks like it's solved by storage lease extension. No more time limit. Still awaiting final confirmation.
Update: Yes, time limit has been eliminated.