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.
Darwin, NT
Shipping containers Darwin
Darwin runs on two calendars and a container sits in the middle of both. Through the dry everything is easy — the ground is hard, the rural tracks hold up and a truck goes where you point it. From the build-up through to April it is a different town. Black soil turns to porridge, driveways get cut, and a job that took an hour in July becomes a conversation about whether it is worth waiting a week. We hold stock at a Darwin depot rather than carting every box up the track, and that is what keeps any of this workable.
- Delivered from
- our own stock held at a Darwin depot, topped up off the wharf at East Arm — inspection there by arrangement
- Typical lead time
- Usually 2–5 business days through the dry; rural drops stretch through the wet
- Usual truck
- Tilt-tray for 10ft and 20ft; crane truck or side loader for 40ft and for tight Palmerston frontages
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.
What matters locally, first.
Common uses in and around town
Around Darwin we deliver containers for remote camp and mine site gear staged out of Winnellie, Berrimah and Yarrawonga, freight units heading to the Tiwi Islands, Groote Eylandt, Gove and the Roper by barge, station and community stores that have to hold a season of everything while the road is cut, packing and chemical storage for the mango and melon growers at Acacia Hills, Berry Springs and Lambells Lagoon, boat, camper and fishing gear kept out of the sun, site stores on the Palmerston estates at Zuccoli and Johnston, and dry lock-up on rural blocks where termites have already eaten one shed.
The access problem in this district
The wet season is the first question on every Darwin delivery and it is not a formality. From November through to April the rural area behind the city — Humpty Doo, Howard Springs, Girraween, Lambells Lagoon, Acacia Hills, Berry Springs — sits on cracking black soil and heavy clay that goes from concrete-hard to bottomless within a couple of hours of a decent fall. Long unsealed driveways with a bit of grade will not hold a loaded rigid truck once that happens, low crossings go under, and a truck that gets committed to a track it cannot back out of becomes a very expensive afternoon for everybody. Laterite gravel drives hold up much better than black soil, so it genuinely helps to tell us which one you have. Through the dry, the same properties are among the easiest work we do. In town it changes shape. Winnellie, Berrimah, East Arm and the Yarrawonga industrial land are wide, hardstand, laid out for B-doubles and about as simple as it gets. The Palmerston growth suburbs — Zuccoli, Johnston, Bellamack — have the usual estate pattern of narrow carriageways, cars on both kerbs, service pits on the kerb line that will crack under a loaded rear axle, and cut-and-fill blocks with thin turf over ground that has not been through enough wet seasons to settle. The older northern suburbs have mature mango, poinciana and African mahogany hanging low over the road and short driveways with a fall at the kerb. The CBD is high-rise: loading docks, booked windows, basement height limits a truck will not meet, and building managers who need notice. And anything going to an island or a remote community adds a barge leg with its own limits on size, weight and sailing days, which we sort out as part of the quote rather than leaving with you.
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 Darwin
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.
Darwin
The wet decides the date
Between November and April we plan Darwin deliveries differently, and the flexibility is built in on purpose. A rural block that took a tilt-tray straight down the driveway in August can be a no-go for three days after a decent overnight fall, and the difference between those two states is often a single storm cell that never went anywhere near the airport. We would rather ring you and move a booking than put a truck onto black soil and spend the rest of the day getting it out, because nobody comes out ahead from that — not you watching a trench get cut across your place and wondering who pays for the loader, and not us with a truck and a driver tied up.
What makes the difference is local knowledge from your end. You know whether your drive is laterite or black soil, which section holds water, whether the crossing on your road goes over and how long it takes to come back down. Tell us at the booking and we will work with it. If there is firm ground near the front — a bit of gravel hardstand, a spot by the shed that never gets soft — setting the container down there and letting you shift it in with a tractor at your own pace is frequently the cleanest answer through the wet. It is also worth knowing that we hold stock locally rather than freighting each unit up from down south, so a booking moved by a few days is a rescheduling problem, not a supply problem.
On the ground
Cyclone season, and what a container is honestly good for
This part gets oversold elsewhere and we will not do it. A shipping container is a strong steel box, and for keeping gear secure, dry from above and out of the weather it is very hard to beat in the Top End. It is not a cyclone shelter, it is not engineered or certified as a cyclone-rated structure, and nobody should be in one during a serious blow. It will not keep floodwater out either. A container keeps rain off from above; water that reaches the door sill gets past the seals, and an empty container is a large sealed box that will float and move if the water gets deep enough. Those are just the facts of the thing.
What that leaves is siting and sense. Put it on the highest practical part of the block rather than the flattest. Keep it clear of the overland flow path, which around Darwin does most of the damage rather than a river coming up. Do not park it directly upwind of anything you care about. Be aware that an empty container on open ground is far lighter than people assume, so if it is going to sit empty through a cyclone season, that is worth talking about at the quote — weighting it, siting it with shelter, or having it properly tied down are all worth doing and are worth doing before November rather than after a warning is issued.
Worth knowing
Steel, termites and a tropical climate
The Top End is the hardest environment in the country for a steel box, and it is the combination that does it rather than any one thing: heat, humidity nine months of the year, salt carried in off the harbour, and a wet season that keeps everything damp for months. The good news is that the things that actually start corrosion are all preventable. Wet leaf litter and mango debris sitting on the roof is the main one. Long grass and regrowth holding moisture against the bottom rail is the second. A container sitting hard on the ground with no air under it is the third. Sweep the roof, keep the grass down, set it on pads so air moves underneath and water gets away, and touch up any scratch through to bare steel before the wet rather than after it.
The other half of why containers do well here is termites. Mastotermes will go through a timber shed in the Top End faster than anywhere else in Australia, and a steel box on pads simply is not on the menu. That is a large part of why so many rural blocks out through Humpty Doo and Berry Springs end up with a container rather than a shed, along with the fact that it arrives finished and lockable on the day and does not need a slab poured and cured first. For anything living outdoors up here with contents that need to stay dry, ask for cargo-worthy — those units are graded wind and watertight. The grades page sets out what the difference is between them, and it is worth two minutes before you order.
What delivery to Darwin costs
Cartage is worked out per address rather than off a table. Distance is only part of it — access is usually what moves the figure.
Tell us the job rather than the product. What goes in, where it sits and how the truck gets there decides the rest.
More of the region
We also deliver to Palmerston, Humpty Doo, Howard Springs, Batchelor, Katherine and the surrounding district. If your town is not on the list, ring — it almost certainly still works.
Common questions
Buying a container in Darwin
Can I inspect a container in Darwin before I buy it?
Yes. We hold our own stock at a depot in Darwin rather than freighting every unit up from down south, and inspection there is by arrangement — ring first so somebody can meet you and the unit you are interested in is accessible rather than buried behind a stack. Trading hours are Monday to Friday 7:30am to 5pm and Saturday 8am to 12pm. If getting there does not suit, ask and we will send photos of the actual container on request before delivery: the corners, the door end, the roof and the internal floor.
Will a shipping container stand up to a cyclone in Darwin?
It is a strong steel box, but it is not a cyclone shelter and it is not engineered or certified as a cyclone-rated structure, so nobody should be in one during a blow. It will not hold floodwater out either — water reaching the door sill gets past the seals, and an empty container will float and move if it gets deep enough. What helps is siting it on the highest practical ground, keeping it out of the overland flow path, not putting it upwind of anything you value, and talking to us before the season if it will be sitting empty on open ground.
Can you deliver to a rural block at Humpty Doo or Berry Springs during the wet?
Sometimes, and it depends almost entirely on your driveway. A laterite gravel drive usually holds up. Black soil and heavy clay do not — they go from hard to bottomless within a couple of hours of a decent fall and a loaded truck committed to that track is not coming back out on its own. Tell us which one you have, whether there is a crossing on the way in and where the ground stays firm. Often the cleanest answer through the wet is setting the container down on hard ground near the front for you to shift in with a tractor when it dries out.
Can you supply a container to be barged to a community or an island?
Regularly, and it is a big part of what we do out of Darwin — units heading to the Tiwis, Groote, Gove, the Roper and stations where the road is cut for months. The barge operator sets the limits on size, weight, loading and sailing days, so that leg is arranged with them as part of the quote rather than left as your problem after you have bought a container. A 20ft is easier to move onto and around most communities than a 40ft. Tell us the destination and what is going in it and we will come back with a full answer, not just a container price.
Get a price
Start with the address and the access
We deliver to Darwin 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