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.
Devonport, TAS
Shipping containers Devonport
Devonport has one advantage no other Tasmanian town has: the container comes off the boat here. That takes the road leg largely out of the equation, but it does not take out the sailing, and the sailing is the part that decides your date. The other constant is the soil. The north-west coast runs on deep red basalt — the reason the vegetables and the poppies grow the way they do — and it is superb ground for farming and awkward ground to put a loaded truck on between May and September.
- Delivered from
- Devonport is where Tasmanian stock arrives — units are loaded in Melbourne and cross on a scheduled sailing into the port here, then it is a short road leg to your block.
- Typical lead time
- Usually 2–4 weeks — the shortest road leg in the state, but the sailing still sets the clock
- Usual truck
- Tilt-tray for 10ft and 20ft on formed ground; crane truck for 40ft and for the tight older streets on the hill above the Mersey
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 is worth knowing about this place, up front.
What the containers do here
Around Devonport we deliver containers for seed, crate and irrigation gear on the vegetable country through Spreyton, Sassafras and Forth, dry storage on the dairy farms out towards Latrobe and Sheffield, contractor and workshop lock-up around the Quoiba and East Devonport industrial land, secure storage for boat and cray gear along the Mersey and out at the Bluff, site boxes for builders working the coastal subdivisions at Miandetta and Ambleside, and household storage while a Devonport weatherboard waits its turn with a builder.
Getting a truck in
Devonport is two towns with a river between them and the delivery reality differs on each side. East Devonport and the flats around Ambleside are easy — flat, wide enough, and largely free of the overhead problems that plague older hill suburbs. The western side climbs. The streets above the Mersey through Devonport proper, up around Miandetta and along the ridge towards the Bluff, have short steep drives, retaining walls hard on the boundary, and older street trees at exactly tilt-bed height. Where the drive is steep or curved a crane truck lifting from the street is more reliable than a tilt-tray trying to reverse up it, and that is worth deciding before we book. Out of town the ground takes over as the main constraint. Red basalt is deep, soft-structured and holds water, and in winter it will take a wheel rut and keep it for a year. A paddock that carried a tractor last week will not carry a rigid truck with a container on it after three days of rain, and the honest advice through the wet months is to place the container on the nearest formed hardstand — the shed apron, the crate pad, the driveway — and shift it yourself when the ground dries. Farm access adds the usual items: gates on a bend, narrow crossings over the creeks running down to the coast, and low-set sheds. Along the coast itself the extra factor is wind and salt. Delivery days on the exposed coastal blocks around the Bluff, Port Sorell and out towards Ulverstone can be genuinely windy, and a crane lift in a strong wind is a job we will postpone rather than push through. If we ring you the day before and move it, that is why.
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 Devonport
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.
Devonport
Landing at the port, and what it actually saves
Everything we send to Tasmania arrives through this coast, so Devonport customers are as close to the front of the queue as it gets. The container is released in Melbourne, booked onto a sailing, and comes into the port here — which means the road leg to your block is measured in minutes rather than hours, and the risk of something going wrong between the wharf and your gate is about as low as it gets in this state.
What it does not do is beat the boat. Sailing space is finite, cut-offs are firm, and the period either side of Christmas is genuinely tight. Two to four weeks from a locked-in order is the honest window for Devonport, same as the rest of Tasmania, and the difference shows up at the back end rather than the front. What we would ask is that you commit as early as your plans allow, and that if you need more than one unit you order them together — an order split across two sailings is the most common way people end up half set up. And to be clear about something: the port is a working commercial wharf, not a yard of ours. You cannot collect from it, and we would not send you there.
On the ground
Red basalt in winter, and the ruts it remembers
The krasnozem soils of the north-west coast are among the best in the country to grow in and among the least forgiving to drive a heavy truck across in winter. They are deep, friable and hold moisture well, which is exactly what you want under a potato crop and exactly what you do not want under a rear axle in July. Once a loaded wheel breaks the surface it keeps going, and the rut it leaves is still there next season.
So the winter conversation on any farm delivery here is about where, not whether. Put the container on the formed surface you already have — the shed apron, the crate pad, the gravelled turnaround — and move it with your own gear when the ground firms up. If it has to go to a spot without formed access, a crane truck working from the hardstand can often reach it. And in every season, get the corner castings onto hardwood sleepers or concrete pads rather than straight onto that soil. Basalt country holds water at the surface, and a container sitting directly on damp ground will rust from underneath long before it does anything on top.
Worth knowing
Salt air on a steel box
Anything within a few kilometres of this coast lives in salt-laden air, and that changes how a container ages. Paint works harder, surface rust appears earlier at the edges and welds, and the moving parts — hinges, locking bars, door gear — are the first things to complain. It is not a reason to buy something else; it is a reason to buy the right grade and then spend twenty minutes a year on it.
Two things pay for themselves. First, grade. If the unit is going to sit at Port Sorell or out on an exposed block near the Bluff and you need it fully sound for years, buy a cargo-worthy or new unit — those are checked wind and watertight — rather than the cheapest thing available, and look at the grades page before you decide. Second, maintenance. Grease the hinges and the locking bar cams once a year, wash the salt off the doors and the roof occasionally, and touch up any paint chips as they appear rather than after the rust has set in. Site it with the doors away from the prevailing salt-laden weather if the block gives you the choice — free at delivery, and a nuisance to change later.
What delivery to Devonport costs
Freight to this area is quoted per job. The truck the site needs is usually the bigger variable, not the kilometres.
Start with the address and what the container has to do. Everything else follows from those two answers.
Nearby towns we cover
We also deliver to Latrobe, Ulverstone, Spreyton, Port Sorell, Sheffield and the surrounding district. If your town is not on the list, ring — it almost certainly still works.
Common questions
Buying a container in Devonport
The container comes off the boat at Devonport. Can I collect it from the port?
No. The port is a working commercial wharf operated by others, not a yard of ours, and there is no arrangement under which you can pick a container up there. We take delivery off the sailing and truck it to your block, which on the Devonport side is a very short run. If you want to see the actual unit first, ask and we will send photos of it on request before delivery — the floor, the doors, the corners — rather than a stock image.
Why is the lead time still two to four weeks if the boat lands here?
Because the boat is the constraint, not the truck. The container is released in Melbourne, has to be booked onto a sailing, and Bass Strait space is finite with firm cut-offs — it gets tight around Christmas and at the start of harvest. Devonport gets the benefit at the other end: the road leg from the wharf to your block is short and low-risk. Order early, and if you need more than one unit, order them together so they travel on the same sailing.
Can you deliver onto a paddock or a vegetable block in winter?
Usually not, and we will say so rather than bog a truck on your ground. Red basalt soil holds water, and once a loaded rear axle breaks the surface the rut stays there into next season. Through the wet months the sensible answer is to place the container on the formed surface you already have — shed apron, crate pad, gravel turnaround — and move it yourself when the ground firms. Where the spot has no formed access, a crane truck working from the hardstand can often reach it.
Does the salt air on this coast wreck a container?
It ages one faster, particularly the door gear. Hinges, locking bars and cams are the first to seize, and surface rust shows earlier at edges and welds. Buy the right grade for the job — cargo-worthy and new units are checked wind and watertight and stand up far better on an exposed coastal block than a cheap tired unit will. Then grease the door gear once a year, wash the salt off occasionally, and touch up paint chips as they appear. Sited doors-away from the prevailing weather, a good container lasts a very long time here.
Get a price
Tell us where it is going and what it is for
We deliver to Devonport 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