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.
Hobart, TAS
Shipping containers Hobart
Bass Strait is the honest answer to most questions about a Hobart delivery. Containers reach Tasmania on a sailing rather than a schedule you can lean on, then run down the Midland Highway, and that means ordering earlier than you would on the mainland. We would rather give you a real date than a hopeful one. The other half of the job is what the container lands on. Hobart is built up the flank of a dolerite mountain — the streets climb, the blocks fall away, and there is rock a spade's depth under a lot of it.
- Delivered from
- the Melbourne depots, shipped across Bass Strait to the north-west coast and carted down the Midland Highway
- Typical lead time
- Usually 10–15 business days, and it moves with the Bass Strait sailing schedule
- Usual truck
- Tilt-tray for 10ft and 20ft where the drive allows it; crane truck for 40ft and for the steep blocks above the city
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.
Before the detail, the shape of it.
What locals buy them for
Around Hobart we deliver containers for pen, rope and net gear for the aquaculture operators working the Channel and the Huon, cray and scallop kit at Margate, Kettering and Dover, bin and harvest storage for the cherry and apple growers through the Huon and the Coal River Valley, vineyard gear at Richmond and Cambridge, expedition and field equipment staged around Kingston and the wharves, materials and tools on the endless West Hobart and Sandy Bay renovations, firewood and forestry contractors' gear, and shack storage for places on Bruny and the east coast that sit empty half the year.
Getting it onto the block
Hobart is the steepest capital we deliver into and the older suburbs make no apology for it. West Hobart, Mount Stuart, Lenah Valley, Dynnyrne, South Hobart and the climb toward Fern Tree are narrow, pitched hard, and lined with cars parked on both kerbs because most of those houses have no off-street parking to speak of. Driveways come off the road at an angle and at a grade, and a good number of them run down to a garage under the house rather than up to a level pad. Battery Point is its own case — one-way lanes, heritage kerbs, corners a long rigid simply cannot take, and frontages measured in a few metres. Very few of those blocks are tilt-tray sites. They are crane sites, and the questions that decide them are reach, the height of the roofline in the way, whether there are service lines across the frontage and whether the street is wide enough for outriggers without shutting it. Then there is rock. Dolerite sits close to the surface across most of the western side of the city, sometimes under a few hundred millimetres of soil, sometimes as loose blocky scree on the steeper flanks. It is superb bearing ground and it is very hard to dig, which changes how a container gets levelled: you build the low side up rather than cutting the high side down, because cutting into that is a machine job and an expensive one. The eastern shore is a relief by comparison. Howrah, Bellerive, Rokeby, Lauderdale and out toward South Arm are flatter and sandier, with a few soft spots close to the water, and Brighton, Bridgewater and the northern industrial land is straightforward hardstand. Winter adds ice on the shaded southern faces and the occasional low-level snow that closes the roads to Fern Tree and up the mountain outright.
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 Hobart
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.
Hobart
Bass Strait sets the calendar
There is no way to make a container arrive in Hobart as fast as one arrives in a mainland capital, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. The unit is picked in a Melbourne depot, loaded for a sailing, crosses to the north-west coast and then runs down the Midland Highway to you. Every one of those legs has a schedule attached and none of them are ours to move. Ten to fifteen business days is the realistic window, and it can be shorter if the timing lines up with a sailing that is already loading and longer if it does not, or if the weather closes the Strait. What that means practically is simple: order earlier than feels necessary. If there is a fixed date on the other end — a harvest, a settlement, a build starting, a lease ending — tell us at the enquiry and we will work backwards from it rather than forwards from today.
The distance also changes the buy-or-hire calculation. Sending a hire container back across the water at the end of a job is a real movement, so short hires make less sense here than they do in Melbourne or Brisbane, while long hires and purchases both hold up well. If the container is going to be part of how a farm, a wharf-side operation or a workshop runs, buying is usually the sensible end of it. Grade is the separate call: for anything sitting outdoors in this climate with contents you need dry, cargo-worthy is what to ask for, because those units are graded wind and watertight. The grades page explains the differences properly.
On the ground
Dolerite under everything
The mountain and most of the ground under western Hobart is dolerite, and it turns up in three forms that matter to a delivery. Solid rock a short way down, which is superb to sit a container on and almost impossible to excavate without a machine and a budget. Loose blocky float and scree on the steeper slopes, which looks solid and rolls under load. And shallow soil over the top of either, which behaves fine until a corner casting punches through it. The consequence is that levelling here works upward, not downward. You pack and build the low side of the fall with hardwood sleepers or concrete pads until all four corners sit at the same height, rather than cutting a shelf into the high side — cutting into a slope on this ground is expensive and it creates a trench that collects water against the bottom rail for the next twenty years.
Get it right and the container carries everything through its four corner castings the way it was designed to, stays square, and keeps its doors swinging cleanly for decades. Get it wrong on a sloping Hobart block and the frame racks within a season. Put the door end on the high side of the fall. Keep the underside clear and open so air moves through rather than sitting damp against the floor bearers. And on a block with scree or loose float, spend the extra half hour finding solid bearing for each pad instead of sitting one on a rock that will roll. Tell us what the ground looks like at the quote and we will bring the packing on the truck.
Worth knowing
Damp, salt and a southern aspect
Hobart's climate is hard on steel in a quieter way than the tropics are. It is cool, it is often damp, the sun sits low for months, and a southern-facing wall or a spot under trees may not properly dry out between April and September. Add salt carried up the Derwent from Storm Bay and across the Channel, and the things that actually start corrosion are the ones that trap moisture against the metal: wet leaf litter left sitting on the roof, moss and lichen taking hold on the shaded side, long grass growing up against the bottom rail and holding it damp for months at a time. The sea air on its own does far less damage than any of those.
The maintenance list is short. Sweep the roof a couple of times a year, especially under gums and wattles. Keep the grass down around the base. Leave the underside open so air can move under the floor. Open the doors for an hour on a dry day now and then so the inside air changes over, and get vents fitted at both ends if the container is going to hold anything that minds moisture, because a sealed box in this climate will hold a damp atmosphere all winter. Where possible, site it with a bit of northern exposure rather than tucked hard against a south wall or under a permanent canopy — the difference over ten years is easy to see when you park two containers side by side.
What delivery to Hobart costs
The cartage component depends on which depot the unit comes out of and what the site needs. We work it out with the quote.
Give us the address and a rough idea of the entry and we will do the working out at our end.
Around the same run
We also deliver to Kingston, Sorell, New Norfolk, Huonville, Richmond and the surrounding district. If your town is not on the list, ring — it almost certainly still works.
Common questions
Buying a container in Hobart
How long does it take to get a container to Hobart?
Ten to fifteen business days is the realistic window, and we would rather say that than quote a mainland timeframe we cannot meet. The unit is picked in Melbourne, loaded for a Bass Strait sailing, crosses to the north-west coast and then runs down the Midland Highway. Those schedules are not ours to move and rough weather in the Strait can add to them. Order earlier than feels necessary, and tell us any fixed date up front. Since you are buying across water, ask for photos of the actual unit on request and we will send them before delivery — corners, door end, roof and internal floor.
Can you deliver to a steep block in West Hobart or Sandy Bay?
Usually, but often not with a tilt-tray. Those streets are narrow, parked out both sides and pitched hard, and plenty of the driveways drop away to a garage under the house rather than climbing to a level pad. On most of them the practical answer is a crane truck standing in the street and lifting the container over the fence or the roofline into the yard. What decides it is how far the container has to travel horizontally, what height it must clear, whether there are service lines across the frontage and whether the street will take outriggers. A photo from the middle of the road and one from the yard gets you a straight answer quickly.
Can you get a container to Bruny Island, the Channel or the Huon?
Yes to all three, and they are different jobs. The Channel and the Huon are road runs from Hobart, on roads that are narrow and winding in sections with low canopy and some tight bridge approaches, so a 20ft is a much easier proposition than a 40ft on most of them. Bruny adds a vehicle ferry from Kettering, and the operator sets the limits on vehicle length, weight and loading, so that leg gets arranged as part of your quote rather than assumed. Give us the address, the island or valley and a description of the access and we will come back with something real.
Will a container sweat in Hobart's climate?
A sealed one can, and the shaded southern side of a block is where it shows up first. Cool damp air gets shut inside, the steel drops below the dew point overnight and moisture forms on the roof and runs down. Vents at both ends make most of it go away, pallets keep stored gear off the floor, and never load damp canvas, green timber or wet gear and then close it up for a month. A moisture absorber is worth it for anything that really matters. Keep the roof clear of leaf litter and the grass down around the base and the outside looks after itself.
Get a price
Find out what actually fits
We deliver to Hobart 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