Actually I think the problem with shipping bikes to Australia is with the USPS. Shipping bikes from Australia is reasonable if I recall. I can't find reference to a size limit on the Australian post site.
Joe Bender-Zanoni Great Notch, NJ
wheelman@nac.net wrote:
>I shipped a bike to Japan (also part of the pac rim) and used two 108 inch
>dimension BMX boxes and it was like $110 total for both. So I just went to
>the USPS on line calculator and chose Australia for a package weighing 30
>lbs (far more than one of two boxes would weigh) and asked for rates. It
>came up as $52 surface rate for each box which sounds reasonable. Then I
>clicked on a link that would tell me dimension limits and as you say they
>limit it to 79 total length and girth. So then I went back and changed the
>country to Japan and used the same exact data and guess what the size
>limit changed to 108 total length and girth. Same as your average BMX box
>and still the price was a reasonable $51 each. From that I can only draw
>the conclusion that Australia must have a limitation on the size of
>package that can come into the country surface. I wonder if it would be
>cheaper to send through another country if you could have someone would
>would be willing to act as a transfer station.
>
>Ray Homiski
>Elizabeth, NJ