10ft Shipping Containers
Side access is pinched, the setback leaves nothing to manoeuvre in, or all that is needed is a lockable spot for the mower, an air compressor and a wall of hand tools.
Cairns, QLD
Shipping containers Cairns
The honest starting point for Cairns is distance. It is a very long way from the eastern seaboard container depots, and anything trucked up here carries that distance in the price and in the calendar. So the fact that we hold stock in Cairns is not a nice extra, it is the whole reason a Cairns order behaves like a normal purchase instead of a freight project. After that, the local problems are the wet, which is a genuine wet rather than a southern idea of one, and the ranges up to the Tablelands.
- Delivered from
- stock we hold at a depot in Cairns, with the Cornubia yard covering anything that has to be sent north
- Typical lead time
- Usually 2–4 business days on stock already in Cairns; allow a week or more for anything carted up from the south
- Usual truck
- Tilt-tray for 10ft and 20ft; crane truck for 40ft and for beachside blocks with no side access; range work is sized to the road
Every enquiry answered within one business day.You hear back from a person, not an autoresponder. Enquiries that land on a weekend are answered the next business day.
The short version, before the detail.
The jobs they turn up on locally
Around Cairns we deliver containers for dive, reef and charter gear stored between seasons for the operators working out of Trinity Inlet and the marina, tourism equipment that only comes out half the year, chemical and machinery parts on the cane country through Gordonvale, Babinda and the Mulgrave, spares and consumables for the marine trades and slipways, site stores on the builds through Edmonton, Mount Peter and Smithfield, feed, fencing and machinery storage on the Tablelands blocks around Mareeba and Atherton, and household storage for people moving in and out of a city that turns over a lot of residents.
How the drop usually goes
Two things define delivery in the far north and the first is water. The wet season here is not a heavier version of a southern summer, it is a different climate, and the district can take more rain in a week than most of Queensland sees in a year. That does two things to a delivery. It makes any unsealed approach — a cane headland, a Tablelands property track, a bush block driveway — a day-by-day proposition rather than something you book a fortnight out, and it means low-lying ground stays saturated for long stretches rather than drying out between events. Machans Beach, Holloways Beach, Aeroglen and the flats along the Barron and the Mulgrave are the obvious examples, and they inform where a container should be put rather than whether it can be. The second is the geography. The city itself is a narrow strip between the range and the sea, so the northern beaches — Trinity Beach, Kewarra, Clifton, Palm Cove — are sandy blocks with tight frontages, established palms and no side access on plenty of them, which makes lifting over the fence the standard method rather than the exception. South through Edmonton, Bentley Park and Mount Peter it is estate country with the familiar pattern of narrow streets, kerbside parking, service pits that will not carry a rear axle and fill that has not settled. And then there is up. Getting a container to the Tablelands means a range road, and the climbs to Kuranda and up the Gillies to Atherton and Malanda are steep, tightly cornered, jungle-canopied and subject to posted vehicle length limits that a long rigid with a container hanging off the back does not always meet. That is not caution for its own sake. A truck that cannot make a hairpin on the Gillies has nowhere to go but backwards. If your address is above the range, work the size out with us before anything is ordered. A 20ft is the workhorse up there, and where somebody wants forty feet of length, two 20ft nose to tail gives more usable space and a far simpler day.
Grade moves 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.
The range
Containers we deliver to Cairns
Priced with delivery to your address - one call, one number.
20ft Shipping Containers
There is about seven metres of straight, reasonably level ground for it to sit on, and you would rather not discover in half a year that the bigger box was the answer.
40ft Shipping Containers
You have the space, the approach is genuinely open, and the aim is the largest amount of storage per dollar spent that anybody sells.
Cairns
Why local stock matters more here than anywhere
Cairns is roughly a two-day truck run from the south-east Queensland depots, and that distance is why container buying in the far north has a reputation for being slow and awkward. We hold stock at a depot in Cairns specifically so that most orders do not have to touch that run at all. A unit already standing here can be on a Cairns, Edmonton or Smithfield address in a few days. A unit that has to be carted up is a different conversation, and it is one you should have at the quote rather than discover two weeks in. It is also the question worth putting to anybody quoting you a Cairns job: is the container you are describing actually in Cairns, or is it a photograph of something standing in a yard two days south. The answer changes the date, and up here the date is usually what people are really buying.
So be specific when you ring. If a standard 20ft will do the job, there is a good chance one is here now. If you want a high cube, a double-door unit or a particular grade, ask, and you will be told plainly whether it is in Cairns or coming north and what that does to the date. Inspecting one is arranged in advance rather than dropped in on, because nobody is stationed at the depot to receive visitors — ring and we will set a time with somebody there and the unit pulled out where you can open the doors and walk the floor. If that is not practical, photos of the actual unit are available on request and we send them before delivery.
On the ground
Humidity, corrosion and keeping a container alive up here
The wet tropics are harder on steel than anywhere else we deliver, and it is worth understanding what actually causes trouble, because it is not the rain. It is water that cannot get away. Wet leaf litter sitting on a roof panel for months holds moisture against the paint until it gives up. Vegetation growing hard against the bottom rail does the same thing at ground level, and up here vegetation does not take long. A floor bearing directly on permanently damp ground has no chance to dry out on the underside, which is where a container in the tropics usually starts to go, out of sight and years before anybody looks. By the time it shows on the outside it has been happening for a long time.
The countermeasures are unglamorous and they work. Get the unit up on pads or bearers so there is a clear gap underneath and air moves. Clear the roof of leaves a few times a year, especially if it is under a mango or a palm. Keep a metre of clear ground around the base and whipper-snip it rather than letting it grow in. Open the doors on a dry day now and then, because a sealed box in this humidity will build condensation and that has to go somewhere. If the unit is going to live outdoors here long-term with anything you need to stay dry inside it, ask for cargo-worthy — it is checked wind and watertight before it leaves the yard — and have a look at the grades page before you decide on price alone.
Worth knowing
Up the range to the Tablelands
Anything going to Mareeba, Atherton, Malanda, Yungaburra, Kuranda or the country around them has to climb, and the climb decides the container rather than the other way round. The range roads were cut into steep, wet, jungle country and they have not got any wider. Hairpins that a long vehicle cannot straighten out, a cut bank on one side and a long way down on the other, canopy hanging into the road, and posted vehicle length limits in places. A tilt-tray with a 20ft aboard does those climbs. A longer combination under a 40ft frequently cannot, and discovering that at the third hairpin is a very bad afternoon for everybody, because there is nowhere to turn and nowhere to pull off. That is not caution for its own sake, it is why we settle the size question before anything gets booked rather than after.
So we settle the size question first. A 20ft covers the overwhelming majority of what people up top actually need. Where somebody genuinely wants forty feet of length, a pair of 20ft units lined up nose to tail delivers it with a far easier climb, more ways to arrange the space, and the option of moving one of them somewhere else down the track. Above the range the ground changes too — the red volcanic soil around Atherton and Malanda is deep, holds water and moves through the year, so pads or bearers under the corners are not optional if you want the doors still lining up in five years. Tell us the address and what the last stretch of driveway looks like and we will size the job properly the first time.
What delivery to Cairns costs
There is no flat delivery rate here worth publishing. What the truck has to do at your end changes it too much, so we quote it per job.
Describe the spot it has to land on and we will work backwards from there to the container and the truck.
Around the same run
We also deliver to Gordonvale, Smithfield, Mareeba, Innisfail, Port Douglas and the surrounding district. If your town is not on the list, ring — it almost certainly still works.
Common questions
Buying a container in Cairns
Do you actually have containers in Cairns?
Yes, we hold stock at a depot in Cairns, which is what keeps a far north order to a few days rather than a fortnight. Not every size and grade is standing here every week, and anything that has to come up from our Cornubia yard adds substantially to the date — you will be told which applies when we quote, not afterwards. Looking at one before you order is fine and we do it regularly; it needs a phone call first, because the depot has no public counter.
Can you get a container up to Atherton, Malanda or Kuranda?
Yes, but the road up decides the size, not you and not us. The climbs are steep and tightly cornered with canopy in the road and posted length limits in sections, so a 20ft on a tilt-tray is what we can promise above the range. Where forty feet of length is genuinely the requirement, a pair of 20ft units nose to tail almost always ends up better — simpler climb, more ways to lay the space out, and one can be moved later. Ring with the address before ordering and describe the last stretch of driveway.
How does the wet season affect delivery around Cairns?
Sealed addresses in town are generally fine. Anything with an unsealed approach — a cane headland, a Tablelands track, a bush block driveway — becomes a day-by-day decision, because a loaded rigid truck on a saturated surface is a recovery job rather than a delivery. We will ring and move a booking rather than bog a truck on your place, and through the wet we build flexibility into out-of-town runs. If there is hardstand near the road that stays firm, tell us — setting it down there and shifting it in later is often the cleanest option.
Will a container rust out quickly in the Cairns climate?
Not if it is set up and left able to dry. What kills them here is water that cannot escape: leaf litter held on the roof, vegetation grown hard against the bottom rail, and a floor sitting directly on permanently damp ground where the underside never dries. Get it up on pads with a clear gap beneath, clear the roof a few times a year, keep the base clear, and open the doors occasionally on a dry day to let condensation out. Done that way they last decades up here.
Get a price
Ask us what fits your site
We deliver to Cairns and the surrounding district. Tell us what is going in it and what the access is like, and you will get a price with the cartage worked out. Every enquiry answered within one business day.
Or skip the form and ring us — 1300 467 776, Mon-Fri 7:30am-5pm, Sat 8am-12pm