Hi Jacque,
Though i am not in OZ as yet but from all the reading i that i have done and all the sites that i have gone thru, i guess it is best to pick things like furniture and electronics from australia itself.

If you compare prices, the shipping cost wil be almost the same as the cost of buying all that you would be importing/shipping from the US.

Also, You will have lots of time to pick things as you need them. But if you ship them all at once, the cost will have to be paid at one time. I dont know how comfortable you would be with the cost involved in shipping, but for anyone moving out of their current country to another, one should save as much as you can.

And, Australia has some issues like different plug point etc, if US plugs are different, thn u wil hv to work extra hard just to convert them to what can be used in Australia. and in some cases the appliances might just not work because of voltage/power supply difference.

A friend of mine from India shipped his furniture and what he finally got wasn't what he had sent from India. There are times when there are certain damages involved, another thing not to be missed is the Import Duty/Tax, you might have to pay these on certain articles.

So think twice about shipping etc. as for linen, other households, it makes lot of sense if you carry those with you or get them shipped as a parcel and not in a container. More thn the cost factor, it is the inconvenience that you might face due to post shipment formalities.

Hope this helps.
Cheers
Anj