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.
Port Augusta, SA
Shipping containers Port Augusta
Port Augusta is where the country's roads run out of alternatives. The Stuart heads north to Alice Springs and Darwin, the Eyre runs west across the Nullarbor, the Augusta comes up from Adelaide, and the road into the Flinders starts just past Stirling North. A fair share of the containers we send here are not staying — they are staging for a station, a camp or a job at a place with no street number. That changes the questions we ask. Not just where you want it, but what happens to it after that, and whether the road it will travel on is sealed.
- Delivered from
- Port Augusta stock comes out of the Adelaide container terminals and runs north on the Augusta Highway; we hold no stock at the top of the gulf.
- Typical lead time
- Usually 6–10 business days from order to on the ground, and longer again if it is heading further north or west
- Usual truck
- Tilt-tray for 10ft and 20ft on formed ground; crane truck for 40ft, and a proper look at the route before anything heads out onto dirt
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.
Read this before you settle on a size.
The jobs they turn up on locally
Around Port Augusta we deliver containers for staging and stores for pastoral stations up through Quorn, Hawker and the Flinders, tool and camp storage for crews heading north on the Stuart or west across the Eyre, secure lock-up on the industrial land at Stirling North and Port Augusta West, spares and consumable storage for the rail and transport operators working the corridor, site boxes for the solar and wind construction jobs around the top of the gulf, and dry lockable storage for households and small businesses who would rather not cart things back to Adelaide twice.
What the delivery actually involves
In town the delivery is easy. Port Augusta is flat, the streets are wide, and the residential and industrial ground is generally hard — calcrete, gravel and compacted red dirt that carries a loaded rigid without argument. A tilt-tray handles the great majority of town jobs. The interesting part is everything outside the town boundary. First, the flats. Around the head of the gulf and out toward the samphire country the ground is salt pan and gypsum crust, and it is deceptive: it looks and sounds like pavement when it is dry, and after rain it turns into something a truck will not get out of. We will not take a truck onto salt flat, and if that is where the container is going the answer is to set it on the nearest formed ground and move it yourself with the right machine. Second, unsealed roads. If the container is going out to a station or a camp, the route matters more than the distance. Grids, floodways, sand patches and long stretches of formed gravel are all manageable in the right conditions, but rain closes roads out here properly — as in the road is legally shut for days, not just unpleasant — and no amount of scheduling gets around that. Tell us the route, not just the destination, and tell us who to ring on the day to check the road is open. Third, heat. From November through March a mid-afternoon delivery is a genuinely unpleasant and slightly risky thing for everyone involved. We will propose an early start and we would encourage you to take it. Fourth, dust. Red dust here gets into everything, and the day you take delivery is the day to check the door seals are clean and seating properly, because dust that finds its way past a seal will keep coming for as long as the container is here.
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 Port Augusta
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.
Port Augusta
The crossroads: containers that keep going
Port Augusta is a staging town, and a good proportion of the containers we deliver here are the first leg of something longer. A station buys one and takes it out past Quorn on a float. A contractor stages gear here before heading up the Stuart. A camp gets kitted out and the whole lot goes north. That is worth telling us at the quote, because it changes what we recommend.
If a container is going to be lifted, floated and set down again more than once, the condition of the frame and corner castings matters far more than the cosmetics of the panels, and that pushes you towards a better grade than you might otherwise buy — the grades page sets out what each one covers. It also changes the size conversation. Two 20ft units are often more useful than one 40ft to somebody who has to move them again on their own gear, because a 20ft is within reach of a lot more equipment than a 40ft is. And it changes the doors question: if the unit is going to be loaded and unloaded in the open at the far end, think about where the doors face relative to the prevailing wind and dust before it leaves here.
On the ground
Heat, dust and the door seals
This is one of the hottest places we deliver to and it shows up in two ways. The first is what happens inside a closed container. Dark steel, relentless sun and no airflow will push the internal temperature well above ambient, and 45 degrees outside becomes something considerably worse inside. Aerosols, batteries, adhesives, sealants, candles, some plastics and anything under pressure all deserve a thought before you shut the doors on them in January. Keep the factory vents clear, add extra vents if the unit is holding anything sensitive, and if it is going to be a workshop or a regularly used store rather than a sealed one, raise insulation at the quote stage rather than trying to solve it in summer.
The second is dust. Red dust here is fine, persistent and will exploit any gap it finds. On delivery day, check the door seals are clean and seating evenly all the way round, and keep them that way — a bit of grit sitting in a seal holds the door off by a millimetre and that is all it takes. Grease the hinges and locking bar cams once a year while you are at it, because dust and grit are hard on the door gear out here in a way they are not in a coastal town.
Worth knowing
Samphire flat, calcrete and the rain that shuts roads
There are two kinds of ground around Port Augusta and they behave completely differently. The hard country — calcrete, gravel, compacted red dirt on the rises and through most of the town — is excellent. It carries weight, it drains, it does not swell and shrink, and a container set on it with the corner castings on sleepers or pads will sit level for years without attention. The other kind is the salt pan and samphire flat around the head of the gulf, and that is not ground we will drive a loaded truck onto. Dry, it fools people. Wet, it is bottomless.
The wider version of the same problem is the road network out of town. Unsealed roads through the Flinders and out along the pastoral routes close after rain, and the closures are real and enforced rather than advisory. That is not a scheduling inconvenience we can work around; it just means the honest thing is to build a bit of slack into your plans between November and March when a thunderstorm can shut a road with no warning at all. Tell us the actual route and a contact who can check it on the morning, and we will work with that rather than sending a truck at something and hoping.
What delivery to Port Augusta costs
We price the cartage with the unit rather than off a rate card. Give us the address and the entry and you will get a real number.
Tell us the job rather than the product. What goes in, where it sits and how the truck gets there decides the rest.
Around the same run
We also deliver to Stirling North, Quorn, Whyalla, Port Pirie, Wilmington and the surrounding district. If your town is not on the list, ring — it almost certainly still works.
Common questions
Buying a container in Port Augusta
Can you deliver a container out to a station or a camp past Port Augusta?
Often yes, but the route decides it rather than the distance. Grids, floodways, sand patches and long gravel stretches are all workable in good conditions. What stops it is rain — unsealed roads out here close properly and the closures are enforced, so no amount of planning gets a truck through. Give us the actual route rather than just the destination, plus somebody we can ring on the morning to confirm the road is open. Where the last leg is doubtful we will place the container on formed ground and you move it with your own gear.
Is the ground at the head of the gulf a problem?
The salt pan and samphire flats are, yes. Dry, they look and sound like pavement; wet, they will not let a loaded truck out. We will not drive onto them. The rest of the district is the opposite — calcrete, gravel and compacted red dirt that carries weight well, drains, and does not swell and shrink through the year, so a container set on sleepers or pads there will stay level for years. Tell us at the quote which sort of ground the spot actually is and we will plan the placement accordingly.
What should I not store in a container in a Port Augusta summer?
Anything that objects to serious heat. A closed steel box in the sun here runs well above ambient, so aerosols, batteries, adhesives, sealants, candles, some plastics and anything pressurised are all worth thinking about before you shut the doors in January. Keep the factory vents clear, add more if you are storing anything sensitive, and get the orientation right at delivery — doors and the long wall shaded if the block allows it. If it is going to be a workshop rather than a store, talk to us about insulation at the quote.
I am going to move the container again myself. Does that change what I should buy?
It does. If a unit is going to be lifted, floated and set down repeatedly on the way to a station or a camp, the frame and the corner castings are doing real work and their condition matters far more than how the panels look. That usually means buying a better grade than you would for a container that never moves again — have a look at the grades page. It also often means two 20ft units instead of one 40ft, because far more equipment can pick up and shift a 20ft than a 40ft.
Get a price
Ask about stock for your area
We deliver to Port Augusta 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