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.
Rockhampton, QLD
Shipping containers Rockhampton
There is stock in Rockhampton, which is the single most useful fact on this page, because it means a container for a Rockhampton address does not have to be trucked a thousand kilometres before it does any work. The thing that catches people out here is not supply and it is not the highway. It is black soil. Heavy cracking clay opens up wide enough in October to lose a tape measure down, closes over in the wet, and will quietly take one corner of a container with it if nobody put anything underneath.
- Delivered from
- stock we hold at a depot in Rockhampton, backed by the Cornubia yard for anything not standing locally
- Typical lead time
- Often 1–3 business days on a unit already in Rockhampton; longer where it has to come up from the south
- Usual truck
- Tilt-tray for 10ft and 20ft; crane truck for 40ft; side loader where a laydown wants several placed in a row
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.
What locals buy them for
Around Rockhampton we deliver containers for feed, vet supplies, fencing and panels on the grazing country through Gracemere, Stanwell, Bajool and out west toward Duaringa, spares and consumables for the mining services and engineering firms that supply the Bowen Basin, tool and plant storage on the industrial land at Parkhurst and Gracemere, boat, camping and fishing gear at Yeppoon and Emu Park where the shed filled up long ago, secure site stores for the builders working Norman Gardens and Parkhurst, and stock overflow for businesses that have outgrown a leased tenancy.
Access notes for this district
Black soil is the local specialist subject and every long-term container in this district lives or dies by how it was dealt with. Cracking clay on the Fitzroy country shrinks hard through the dry and swells through the wet, and it does not do either uniformly. A truck crossing it in October has a firm, cracked, roadlike surface. The same paddock a fortnight into a wet is a surface that will not hold a wheel, and a loaded rigid that leaves the formed track on black soil after rain is not getting itself out. Around town, the ground splits along the same lines as the flood history. Depot Hill, Port Curtis, Allenstown and the low ground near the river are alluvial and flat. The Range, Frenchville, Norman Gardens and Kawana sit higher, on better-draining country with more slope and more rock, and the driveways up there are the ones that need looking at before a tilt-tray is committed. The city grid itself is generous, laid out wide when Rockhampton was a river port, which means a truck can position properly in most streets. Out west and out to the coast, the pattern changes again. The properties toward Gracemere, Stanwell, Bajool and Duaringa are grid-and-gate rural: private grids nobody can rate, cattle on the road, long formed-earth drives, and turning space at the shed. The Capricorn Coast run to Yeppoon and Emu Park swaps that for sand and salt. And then there is heat, which is a genuine access issue here rather than a comfort one — a black steel box standing in a Rockhampton yard through a summer afternoon reaches temperatures that decide what you can sensibly keep in it and whether the unit needs venting. That is a question worth answering at the quote, not after the first February.
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 Rockhampton
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.
Rockhampton
Local stock, and the corridor west
We hold containers at a depot in Rockhampton. That matters for two reasons. The obvious one is speed — a unit already standing in town can be on a Rockhampton, Gracemere or Yeppoon address in a day or two rather than waiting on a truck coming north. The less obvious one is that it makes the whole region workable. Rockhampton is the front door for a lot of country that has no realistic container supply of its own, and having stock here is what makes a delivery out to the grazing country or west along the Capricorn Highway a run rather than an expedition. It also means we can be flexible when something changes. A booking pulled because a paddock has gone soft, or a unit that needs to come back and be swapped, is a short trip rather than a thousand-kilometre problem, and that is what decides whether a supplier is any use to you when a job does not go to plan.
Looking at a unit before you order is welcome and it needs arranging, since there is no public counter at the depot. Ring, tell us what you are after, and we will lock in a time with somebody on hand and the unit pulled out where you can open the doors and walk the length of the floor. If the trip does not suit, photos of the actual unit are available on request and we send them before delivery, covering the roof, both ends, the corner posts and the full length of the floor. And be specific at the enquiry about what you want, because what is standing locally changes week to week, and if a particular size or grade has to come up from Cornubia you should hear that when you ask rather than when you are waiting.
On the ground
Black soil will move your container if you let it
This is the one thing worth reading twice if the container is going onto clay. A shipping container carries its whole weight, plus everything you put in it, through the four castings at its corners. It is designed that way and it is fine, provided those four points stay at the same height relative to each other. Cracking clay makes no such promise. It heaves through the wet and shrinks through the dry, unevenly, and over two or three seasons it will lift one corner and drop another. Once that happens the frame is racked, and a racked container is one whose doors stop lining up. First one catches. Then it needs a bar. Then it needs a lift and a reset, which costs a great deal more than doing it right at the start.
What works out here is spreading the load onto something that will not follow the soil. Concrete pads, heavy hardwood bearers, or a pair of sleepers under each end, bedded down into firm ground and checked level across both diagonals before the truck leaves. Have the doors facing uphill wherever there is a fall. Leave a gap beneath so water drains away and air circulates instead of sitting up against the floor. And if the container is going on genuinely reactive country and it is staying for the long haul, it is worth putting it on a small prepared pad of compacted road base — an hour with a bobcat before delivery is cheaper than any of the alternatives afterwards.
Worth knowing
Heat, ventilation and what you keep inside
Rockhampton summers do things to a sealed steel box that people from further south do not always anticipate. A closed container standing in the sun gets hot, and then it stays hot well into the evening because the mass takes a long time to give it back. That is irrelevant if you are storing steel, fencing gear, panels or tools. It is very relevant if you are storing anything with a temperature range on the label — chemicals, adhesives, paint, batteries, electronics, sealed food, timber you care about, or anything with a rubber or plastic component that will go off early. Humidity plays into it as well, because a box that heats hard during the day and cools overnight will move moisture around inside itself, and that condensation has to land somewhere. On a sealed unit with no ventilation, it lands on the ceiling and drips.
There are sensible answers and they are worth deciding on before delivery rather than after. Vents fitted high and low get air moving through and take the top off the peak. A whirlybird does more. Insulation and lining is a bigger job but turns the unit into something you can work in rather than just store in. Even orientation helps — a container placed with the long side facing the afternoon sun rather than the door end has a different day to one that catches it square. Say what is going in it and how long for, and we will point at whichever of those actually earns its money rather than reading you the catalogue. For most people out here the honest answer is a pair of vents and some thought about which way the doors face, and that is where it ends.
What delivery to Rockhampton costs
We quote delivery with the container every time. It is the honest way to do it when access varies as much as it does around here.
Send three photos of the site with your enquiry and we can usually tell you the truck and the timing straight back.
Elsewhere in the district
We also deliver to Gracemere, Yeppoon, Emu Park, Mount Morgan, Blackwater and the surrounding district. If your town is not on the list, ring — it almost certainly still works.
Common questions
Buying a container in Rockhampton
Do you keep containers in Rockhampton or do they come from down south?
We hold stock at a depot in Rockhampton, so a lot of local orders go out on a unit already in town. Not every size and grade is standing there in any given week — where we do not have what you want locally it comes up from the Cornubia yard and adds a few days, and you will be told which of those it is at the quote. Come and look at one by all means, but book it in first — there is nobody on the gate to let you through unannounced.
What should a container sit on in black soil country?
Not the soil. Cracking clay swells through the wet and shrinks through the dry, unevenly, and over a couple of seasons it will lift one corner casting and drop another until the frame racks and the doors stop closing. Spread the load onto something that does not follow the ground: concrete pads, heavy hardwood bearers or sleepers under each end, bedded into firm ground and levelled across both diagonals. On genuinely reactive country that is keeping a container long-term, a small prepared pad of compacted road base is worth the hour it takes.
Will a container be too hot to store things in through a Rockhampton summer?
For fencing gear, steel, panels and tools, no — it makes no practical difference. For anything with a temperature limit on the label, or anything with rubber, plastic or adhesive in it, yes, a closed steel box standing in the sun here will get hotter than you expect and stay hot into the evening. Vents fitted high and low, a whirlybird, or lining and insulating for a working space are all options. Tell us what is going inside at the enquiry and we will suggest what genuinely helps rather than the full catalogue.
Is a container a good store on low ground near the Fitzroy?
As a lock-up, yes. As protection from the river, no, and nobody should sell it to you that way. Water that reaches the door sill works past the seals, and an empty box holds enough trapped air to lift and move. On Depot Hill, Port Curtis or anywhere on the low country, take the highest ground you can use, stay off the route water travels across the block, and stand the unit on blocks or a built pad so the floor sits clear. If it is staying down there permanently, talk to us about anchoring it.
Get a price
Ask about stock for your area
We deliver to Rockhampton 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