Melbourne has the deepest container pool in the country and it shows up in what you can actually get rather than in a lower headline price. Depot stock sits west of the city at Altona, Laverton and West Melbourne and out at Dandenong South, and when a size or a grade is short everywhere else, Melbourne is usually where it is not.
Prices last updated 03/08/2026| Size | Used from* | New from* |
|---|---|---|
| 10ft | $4,350 | $6,400 |
| 20ft | $2,200 | $3,300 |
| 40ft | $2,600 | $5,500 |
| 40ft High Cube | $3,400 | $5,500 |
Those are ex-depot "from" prices, ex GST. The Melbourne delivery is quoted on top and quoted against your actual address rather than your town. Full price list · how delivery is worked out.
Grades matter, and this is where a cheap container gets expensive. Cargo-worthy is the grade we check wind and watertight before it leaves the depot. As-is units are cheaper again and are not sold watertight — they may carry a patched repair, a soft spot in the floor or a door seal that no longer seats, and we will tell you exactly what is wrong with one before you buy it. New single-trip units are sealed and unmarked. If a container has to keep rain off what is inside it, buy cargo-worthy or better.
What we deliver into Melbourne is largely site storage across the growth corridors at Tarneit, Wyndham Vale, Craigieburn, Clyde North and Officer, trade and tool storage through the industrial estates at Dandenong South, Campbellfield and Truganina, workshop and studio conversions in the inner north, dry storage for the cool-climate growers up past Yarra Glen, and shell units bought for fitout by the businesses that do that work along the western ring.
Depth of stock is the practical advantage here. If you want a 10ft, a specific colour in new single-trip, or a high cube in cargo-worthy grade rather than new, Melbourne is the market most likely to have one standing on the ground rather than on a vessel.
That does not change the published price — a used 20ft still starts at $2,200 ex GST and a new single-trip at $3,300 — but it does change how often you have to wait, and waiting is the hidden cost people rarely price in when they compare quotes.
Melbourne metro covers an enormous footprint, and "metro delivery" means something different in Werribee than it does in Lilydale. A 20ft on a tilt-tray into a straightforward address close to the holding depot is the cheapest run we do. Out past that — the Mornington Peninsula, the Macedon Ranges, past Pakenham — the truck is on the road longer and the cartage climbs with the kilometres.
A crane truck for a laneway job costs more than a tilt-tray and it is frequently the only vehicle that will work. We would rather establish that from photographs before quoting than discover it with a truck already in your street.
Melbourne's problem is not a wet season, it is a wet several months. Ground that carried a truck in February will not necessarily carry one in July, and that applies as much to a new estate on fill as it does to a paddock.
Two things help. Block the container up on its four corner castings on something that spreads the load, and keep the approach on the firmest line onto the property rather than the shortest. If the placement spot is soft and the date is not urgent, waiting a dry week is cheaper than a bogged truck.
The Melbourne difficulty is not distance, it is the inner suburbs. Fitzroy, Collingwood, Brunswick, Northcote, Richmond and most of the inner west are laneway country: single-vehicle rear lanes, no room to turn, parked cars both sides, and tram wires or low-strung services over a lot of the through roads. A tilt-tray needs somewhere around twenty metres of straight run to slide a 20ft off cleanly, and a good many inner-Melbourne rear lanes simply do not offer it. A crane truck often does, by lifting over rather than sliding back, and that is the usual answer in those postcodes. The outer growth estates are the reverse — wide, flat, freshly graded and easy, with the one caveat that a new estate block after a wet week is soft fill and a loaded truck will find that out. Photographs of the lane, the gate and the spot are worth more than any measurement you can send us.
The universal requirements are simple: bearing capacity underneath, room to manoeuvre, and headroom. Where any of those is doubtful, a few photographs settle it in minutes — there is a full rundown in how delivery is priced.
Used cargo-worthy 20ft from $2,200 ex GST, new single-trip 20ft from $3,300, used 40ft from $2,600 and 40ft high cube from $3,400. Those are ex-depot figures. Delivery is quoted separately, against the suburb and the access rather than against a published table. Ring 1300 639 282 with the suburb and we will price both together.
Often, but usually with a crane truck rather than a tilt-tray. A tilt-tray needs roughly twenty metres of straight run to slide a 20ft off, and most rear lanes in Fitzroy, Brunswick or Richmond do not have it. A crane truck lifts over instead. It costs more and it is frequently the only thing that works — send photos and we will confirm before quoting.
Our published prices are the same nationally. What differs between markets is the delivery and the availability, and Melbourne is strong on both — a large port-side depot pool close to a very large metro area. That usually means less waiting and a shorter freight leg, rather than a different sticker price.
Three to six business days is typical for Melbourne once an order is confirmed. If you have a fixed date — a site handover, a settlement, a move — say so when you enquire and we will work backwards from it rather than give you an optimistic number.
We deliver Australia-wide. These are simply the markets we can write about in detail — if your town is not listed, ring 1300 639 282 and we will price it the same way.
Our figures are published so you can put them beside anyone else's. Ask for the Melbourne delivery number and compare that too — it is where the surprises live.
Or skip the form and ring — you will get the same two numbers faster.
Call 1300 639 282