You have extremely expensive post in the UK, don't compare it to services in other countries. For instance, the Euro 48 service in the UK costs about 50 pounds for a frame + some small bits to ship to Poland. And to use it, you have to have an account with Parcelforce. Over here, you can use exactly the same service and sending the same parcel to the UK costs 2x less. You don't need to have an account either. I paid ~35 pounds to get a bike from Hungary by priority mail (~5 business days). Obviously if you're going to order from Australia, you'll have to pay a stupid sum for shipping + taxes. One thing to remember is that you can send things as letters - as long as it fits into a box 30x30x30cm and weighs up to 2kg, the postage will be cheap and quick no matter where it's being sent from.