Please note:

This website was set up to get parcels to Australian Soldiers/Sailors/Airmen/Airwomen deployed overseas.

You are welcome to cut and paste information and use it to support sending parcels to our service members serving overseas, however, when you do cut and paste please link back to Ocean Sky & Khaki to acknowledge OSK, and so that people can find the blog themselves.

If there are questions one of us will answer if you comment on a post at the blog.

*************

Monday, November 3, 2014

2014 Christmas Mail - closing date 8 December 2014.

From the Department of Defence website:

People who still wish to send general care parcels to deployed personnel this Christmas can do so through the Australian Forces Post Office box address below, which will be open from Monday 3 November to Monday 8 December 2014.
An Australian Defence Member
AFPO 60
Australian Defence Force NSW 2890
In order to ensure an equitable distribution of parcels it is requested that all donations be gender-neutral, and be addressed to 'An Australian Defence Member', not to a specific job title, trade or unit member.

Unfortunately Defence cannot accept care packages for Military Working Dogs or Explosive Detection Dogs due to strict care requirements relating to both their diet and their training programs.

To ensure that all items are able to be delivered to our deployed forces, donors are asked to ensure that packages are of non-perishable goods. Previous experience has shown that items that are not robustly packaged can break open during transit, which can lead to infestation and spoilage. Defence cannot send perished or infested items overseas.

All items must be submitted to an Australia Post outlet by 8 December 2014, and meet the requirements and restrictions detailed below.

Please ensure that parcels do not contain alcohol, pornography or culturally offensive/inappropriate written material.

Please note that general care parcels received by Defence after this date and those that exceed our ability to distribute will be donated to Australian charities such as the Salvation Army.

Please visit the website for more information: http://www.defence.gov.au/events/christmas/support.asphttp://www.defence.gov.au/events/christmas/support.asp

What not to send:

No religious material.

No porn, naked or immodestly clothed people.

No chocolate, but I've sent Tim Tams.

No toys or food for the dogs, it interferes with their training.

No cigarettes.

No alcohol.

No liquids, they can break or leak and destroy others' Christmas mail.

Nothing home baked, it will be thrown out.

No clothing.

Things to send:

Lollies from Australia (minties, individually wrapped lollies, chupa chups, lolly pops)

Coffee/tea/chocolate - I send sachets of coffee which you just add water to (Nescafe and Moccona make them and Aldi have their own brand).

Other food items I've sent are: crisps, Mac & Cheese, cuppa soups, tins of flavoured tuna (Aldi have some with crackers which are not expensive and taste pretty good), tins of chicken, smoked oysters, other tinned fish (snack size tins).

Remember, it's going to be winter in the middle east in December, and it gets cold!!

No clothing, but a sand scarf in an appropriate camouflage colour (think the desert colours - sand!), would probably be appreciated. Must be made of 100% cotton, usually interlock (t-shirt material), and camoflage colours must be kept in mind. Instructions on how to make a sand scarf can be found here. PLEASE NOTE: you do not need to email the person at the end of the instructions. Just put the sand scarf in your parcel!

Envelopes and small writing pads, biros, it's sometimes difficult to get writing materials.
A self addressed envelope will enable the recipient, if s/he has time, to write to you. Don't expect to receive a reply, feel good that you made someone happy at Christmas to get a parcel. Enclose a note from yourself if you can, like a penpal would, or a postcard from where you live.

BX or B2 sized boxes (the Post Office should be able to help), and remember to keep the parcel under 2kg, or you will have to pay full postage to Sydney.

Good luck, and thank you so much for thinking of our deployed military members.

19 comments:

Gregoryno6 said...

"Please note that general care parcels received by Defence after this date and those that exceed our ability to distribute will be donated to Australian charities such as the Salvation Army."

That's new to me. I'm assuming then that if the parcel can't be sent by Dec 8, wait until Boxing Day. At which point it's no longer a Christmas parcel, of course, but if you want it to get to a soldier rather than get handballed to charity...

Is this some bureaucrat's way of saying 'It's all too hard, go away and stop annoying us'?

Anonymous said...

My hubby is currently in Egypt with OP Mazurka, pretty dangerous too. I think many people don't realise there are still hundreds of Aussies away from their families in a bunch of countries- it's not all about Afghanistan. I'll definitely be sending a couple of care packages overseas despite the department's lack of encouragement.

kae said...

G6
I cannot comment ... ;)

Anonymous
I find it difficult to get information on how to get parcels from Australians with no military contacts who want to show their support to Aussies serving overseas.

If anyone can help with info I'm happy to put it out there!

Email me please, Anonymous!

kae said...

G6

They always donated unsuitable parcels to charity, that's why it's important to keep to the 'what not to send' guidelines.

Gregoryno6 said...

Uh-huh, well, I keep within the guidelines I guess. The few letters I've got back have always made particular mention of the Gina Elise calendar - that would be the only item that might be questionable.
I don't really like the idea that the men and women serving abroad are missing out and some 'charity case' is getting the goodies instead. However, this might explain the thank-you card I got last year. It was sent from an army retirement village up in our northern suburbs.
That is certainly acceptable. I'd hope the calendar doesn't give the old diggers heart trouble, though.

Anonymous said...

I'm just wanting to know if this address for parcels to afrganistan - “An Australian Soldier”
Op Slipper
AFPO 13
Australian Defence Force
SYDNEY NSW 2890
is where we send christmas parcels aswell or can we only send to
An Australian Defence Member
AFPO 60
Australian Defence Force NSW 2890???
Thank you, Alicia.

kae said...

Hi Alicia

Christmas mail address is the one I'm sure of, I'm not sure of the op slipper address any more, and I've had no feedback or replies to requests for information.

jasmine said...

To send care packages throughout the year, is it the same address?

kae said...

Hi Jasmine
Thanks for asking.

Use the Operation Slipper address in the column on the right of this page, that should find them.

Anonymous said...

Hi Kae,
I just wanted to say thanks for setting up this blog. I ended up sending a couple of parcels and just this week received a reply from a defence member in the RAAF. He was so appreciative!

Thanks again,
Alicia :)

kae said...

Hi Alicia

Thanks for supporting our troops overseas.

Isn't it great to hear from a recipient?

When did you send your parcel and which address sis you use?

Thanks for letting us know!

K

Unknown said...

Hi! I really like your blog, and I was thinking it would be nice to send a letter to a troop just to thank them. It would be nice to hopefully help brighten someone's day a little. I don't need a reply. Which is the best address to send letters to? There's a few and I got a bit confused to be honest. Or should I send it to the chaplain to give to someone who looks like they could do with a letter?

kae said...

Use the same address as a parcel to send a letter.

Unknown said...

Any idea if there will be a special address for ANZAC Day parcels this year and what the opening date will be?

kae said...

Sorry, Grant. No idea.

Send to the normal address and make sure it's sent at least four weeks before ANZAC Day.

Gregoryno6 said...

General question, anyone with some info please comment.
What is the smart choice for video discs - the old DVD or the Blu-Ray?
Blu-Ray has been around a few years now, but I wonder if field troops have such 'modern' equipment.

kae said...

G6
I'd imagine they'd play on their laptop.

Candice said...

Hi. Just wondering what address we use at the moment if we wish to send a letter/care package to our troops to brighten up their day.

Thanks
Candice

BroddyAdams said...

Hi! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could get a captcha plugin for my comment form? I'm using the same blog platform as yours and I'm having trouble finding one? Thanks a lot!
mass faxing