Shipping containers Melbourne
Melbourne has volume, competitive pricing and two delivery problems that catch people out: the ground moves, and the inner suburbs were laid out before trucks existed.
- Postcode3000
- Comes fromPort of Melbourne, with depots through Altona, Laverton and Dandenong
- Typical lead timeUsually 3–5 business days
- Usual vehicleTilt-tray in the outer suburbs; crane truck through the inner north and inner east
- Used 20ft from$2,200 ex GST
Why containers turn up on Melbourne sites
The bulk of the Melbourne work is site storage across the growth corridors at Wyndham Vale, Tarneit, Cranbourne and Mickleham, trade and stock storage on the industrial land at Dandenong South, Truganina and Campbellfield, hospitality and retail overflow storage in the inner suburbs, workshop and studio conversions, and equipment storage on the small acreage through the Yarra Valley, Macedon and the Mornington Peninsula. The starting point never changes: what you are storing, how long for, and what the approach looks like. Everything else falls out of those three.
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10ft$4,350used, from
$6,400new, from -
20ft$2,200used, from
$3,300new, from -
40ft$2,600used, from
$5,500new, from
Guide pricing, ex GST. We would rather give you an accurate number than a tidy one. The trip to Melbourne sits inside the figure you are quoted rather than arriving at invoice time.
Grade changes the price more than size does, and it is what decides whether a unit is sold watertight — the full rundown is on the grades page.
What the truck needs at a Melbourne address
The outer Melbourne growth corridors are among the easiest delivery country in Australia — flat, wide, level pads, and a truck can turn anywhere. The inner suburbs are the reverse. Fitzroy, Collingwood, Brunswick, Richmond, Prahran, Northcote and Yarraville have single-frontage terraces, bluestone rear laneways barely wider than a vehicle, overhead tram and power wiring on many arterials, and no realistic place to park a tilt-tray long enough to slide a container off. That is crane truck work. The other Melbourne factor is soil. Much of the western and northern suburbs sits on reactive clay that shrinks hard in summer and swells in winter, so a container set straight onto graded earth in February can be sitting out of level by August, and a container out of level is a container whose doors bind. Set it on pads or sleepers at the corners and re-check them after the first wet winter.
Reactive clay, and why the footing matters more here
This is the Melbourne-specific piece of advice worth the most money. A large part of the metropolitan area is founded on clay that changes volume with moisture. That is why Melbourne houses get articulation joints and why slabs are engineered the way they are. A container placed on unimproved ground is subject to exactly the same movement.
The symptom is always the same and always blamed on the container: after a season the doors are hard to close, or one locking bar will not seat. Nine times in ten the container is fine and one corner has dropped fifteen millimetres. Four solid pads — concrete blocks, pavers, or short lengths of hardwood sleeper — under the corner castings, checked with a level at the time of delivery, prevents nearly all of it.
Overhead wiring and the inner north
The thing that stops more inner-Melbourne deliveries than narrow streets is what is above them. Tram wiring, low-strung power on the older poles, and mature street trees that have been pruned around the wires rather than the road.
A crane truck needs clear air to lift through, and it needs more of it than a tilt-tray does. When you send photographs of a Brunswick or a Richmond address, take one looking straight up from the placement spot. It is the single most useful photo you can send us and it is the one nobody thinks of.
Melbourne — common questions
Can you deliver a container into a Melbourne bluestone laneway?
Sometimes, and it depends on width, the turn at each end and what is overhead. A crane truck standing in the street and lifting over the rear fence is more often the answer than driving a vehicle down the lane. Photographs of the lane, the rear gate and the sky above the spot will settle it in minutes.
Why do my container doors stop closing after a few months?
Almost always because a corner has settled and the box is slightly out of square, not because there is anything wrong with the container. It is more common in Melbourne than most places because of reactive clay soils that move with the seasons. Set the container on four solid pads at the corners, level it at delivery, and check it again after the first wet winter.
How much is a container delivered in Melbourne?
A cargo-worthy used 20ft starts from $2,200 and a new single-trip 20ft from $3,300, ex GST, before cartage. Melbourne cartage is competitive because the depots are close to a lot of the population, but an inner-suburban crane lift and a drop on hardstand at Truganina are very different jobs. You get one delivered figure rather than a container price and a freight surprise.
More delivery areas
Need one in Melbourne this month?
Ring and we will tell you what is available and what the run to you looks like.
Or skip the form — 1300 263 976