Most people picture customs brokering as a world of containers, invoices, and tracking numbers. Forms in triplicate. Spreadsheets. Paperwork.
They’re not wrong. But sometimes the phone rings and reminds you what the work is really about.
The Call
“I Googled You. I See That You Deal with Human Remains.”
It was five minutes to five on a Friday afternoon at Platinum® Freight Management when the call came through.
The man on the other end had found Peter McRae the way most people do, through a search. He had seen that Platinum® handled the importation of human remains and ashes. So he called.
He told Peter his story. His loved one had been buried in East Timor for years. The whole family was now in Australia, and they had always carried the same quiet wish, to have him home with them, here, where they could visit, where he belonged.
“You can imagine,” Peter says. “You’re counting the minutes until you can go home for the weekend. And then a call like that comes through.”
Peter didn’t count the minutes. He listened.
The Process
What It Actually Takes to Bring Remains Home from Overseas
Bringing human remains or ashes into Australia from another country isn’t something most Australians ever need to think about. When the moment comes, they often don’t know where to start, and neither do many of the freight companies they call first.
Peter walked the man through exactly what needed to happen.
“To make this happen, you need to speak to a freight forwarding company in Timor. If they can transport your relative’s remains by air, I can do the rest.”
— Peter McRae | Licensed Customs Broker, Platinum® Freight Management
That is the part most people don’t realise. The overseas leg, coordinating with a local freight company in the country of origin, the documentation, and the packaging to international transport standards, has to be handled on the ground in that country. Once the remains are on board a flight, a licensed Australian customs broker can take over.
The family did exactly that. They travelled to East Timor in person. They found a freight company. They made arrangements. And they put their loved one on a flight to Australia.
Peter had already started working before the plane left the tarmac.
Pre-Clearance
Why Pre-Clearance Made All the Difference
Here is what separated this from an ordinary clearance: Peter lodged the customs documentation with the Australian Border Force and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry before the flight landed.
This process, known as pre-clearance, means that by the time an aircraft touches down, the paperwork has already been assessed, the compliance requirements have already been met, and the human remains can be released on arrival rather than being held for processing.
For a family waiting at an airport, the difference between a same-day release and a multi-day hold is not a logistical inconvenience. It is something else entirely.
“Because I pre-cleared the shipment, he was then able to go to the airport and pick up his relative the same day that the flight arrived.”
— Peter McRae | Licensed Customs Broker, Platinum® Freight Management
The flight from East Timor to Australia is short. The clearance was ready before it landed.
Philosophy
It’s Not a Shipment. It’s A Person.
There is a reason Platinum® Freight Management handles cases that most freight forwarders don’t, or won’t.
The large carriers, the multinational logistics companies, the online freight platforms: they move volume. Every package, every pallet, every container gets a number. Tracking numbers, airway bill numbers, container IDs. The number keeps getting bigger because the volume keeps getting bigger.
“Every shipment has a number. When you’re dealing at scale, that’s how it works. You’re just a number.”
— Peter McRae | Licensed Customs Broker, Platinum® Freight Management
At Platinum®, the phone is answered by a licensed customs broker with over 28 years of experience and a Master of International Customs Law. Not a call centre. Not an automated system. Peter.
And that means when a call comes in at 4:55pm on a Friday, not about a container, not about a commercial shipment, but about a relative buried in another part of the world for years, someone is here to hear it.
What Peter describes next is something they don’t teach in customs brokering qualifications:
“You’ve got to quickly slow down, like when an aircraft reverses thrust on the tarmac to slow down. You’ve got to use different language. Stop thinking ‘shipment.’ Be a human. Be compassionate.”
— Peter McRae | Licensed Customs Broker, Platinum® Freight Management
It sounds simple. In practice, it is a skill that takes years to develop, and one that most of the freight industry never builds at all.
The Outcome
What Happened Two Weeks Later
The clearance went through. The family went to the airport. They brought their loved one to their final resting place.
Two weeks later, a voucher arrived at the Platinum® Freight office.
Platinum® does not charge for family reunification. There is no KPI metric for an emotional outcome. But Peter remembers this one clearly, more clearly, probably, than most of the commercial shipments that crossed his desk that year.
“You wouldn’t think, getting into customs brokering, that it would be emotional. You think: you’ve got objects, you’re importing them, you’re exporting them. But there’s so much more going on for your customers.”
— Peter McRae | Licensed Customs Broker, Platinum® Freight Management
Practical Guide
If You Need to Bring Remains or Ashes Home to Australia
If you or someone you know is navigating the repatriation of human remains from another country, here is what you need to know:
Speak with Platinum® Freight Management
Peter McRae is a licensed customs broker with over 28 years of experience and a Master of International Customs Law. Platinum® Freight Management handles the clearances other customs brokers consider too complex, too unusual, or too close to five o’clock on a Friday.
Call 1300 882 877Every shipment has a number. Every person has a name. Platinum® knows the difference.
Platinum® Freight Management is a licensed customs brokerage operating Australia-wide since 2000. Peter McRae holds a Master of International Customs Law and a Master of International Revenue Administration (University of Canberra) and has been a licensed customs broker since 1998. Member: IFCBAA and Freight & Trade Alliance. ABN 58 095 228 934.