The North Burnett is a two-hour run west of Bundaberg and it is not the same country. Different soil, different weather, different jobs — and a different answer on which container to buy.
We deliver up the Burnett most weeks: Gayndah, Mundubbera, Biggenden, Monto, Mount Perry, Eidsvold and the blocks strung out along the roads between them. The enquiries that come off that country are noticeably different to the ones from town, so it is worth writing down what we have learned rather than making everyone ask.
Two hours from a hardware store changes how you think about storage. A shed needs a slab, usually an approval, and a builder who will drive out. A container arrives on a truck and is locked and usable the same afternoon. On a block where the nearest replacement for anything is a long way away, having your spares, fittings and inputs dry and in one place is worth more than it is in a suburb.
The second reason is security. Properties out here are big, often unattended for parts of the week, and rural theft is a genuine cost rather than a talking point. A container with a lock box welded on is a far harder proposition than an open bay or a roller door.
The third is that it can leave again. Blocks get bought and sold, packing operations move, and someone eventually builds the shed they have been meaning to build for a decade. A container goes on a truck and follows the operation. No shed does that.
Around Gayndah and Mundubbera the pattern is fairly consistent. Cartons, trays and packaging bought in bulk ahead of the season, because storage is cheaper than a rush order. Irrigation — poly, fittings, risers, spare pumps and the fittings box that otherwise lives in six places at once. Netting and covers between uses. Harvest gear, ladders, picking bags and clippers that need to be somewhere dry and somewhere lockable when a large seasonal crew is coming and going.
A 20ft handles most of that. If you are storing packaging at any scale a 40ft is the better buy per cubic metre, and plenty of blocks end up with a 20ft near the shed and a 40ft out where the bulk gear lives. If anyone is going to stand up and work in it — sorting, grading, running a bench — buy the high cube and stop thinking about it. The extra foot of roof also gives you somewhere sensible to vent, which matters more than people expect once a steel box has been closed up through a hot afternoon.
Out through Monto, Eidsvold and the Mount Perry road the job is usually fodder, fencing, pump and bore gear, vet supplies and the parts bin. Less packaging, more heavy and awkward. Here a well-chosen used unit earns its keep, and a 40ft on a hardstand near the yards tends to be the one people wish they had bought first.
Chemical in the corner of the machinery shed is common out here and it is a real liability, both for the people working around it and for your position under a farm assurance audit. A compliant dangerous goods unit has a bunded floor that catches a spill and ventilation that stops vapours pooling, and it separates chemical from everything else on the property — which is precisely what an auditor is looking for.
Get the class right before you order rather than after. Tell us the products and the volumes and we will match the unit. We have gone through this in more detail in container storage on a cane, macadamia or small-crop block, and the same reasoning applies up the Burnett.
This is where the North Burnett differs most from the coast, and it works in your favour.
Corten steel forms a stable rust layer and then largely settles down. That process works properly in dry inland air. Down at Bargara or Woodgate salt keeps the surface damp and it never quite settles, which is why we tell coastal buyers to spend up — see salt air, steel and the Coral Coast for that side of it. Two hours inland you are not fighting that, so an older used unit is a more sensible buy than it would be on the beach.
Where the honesty matters is the grade ladder. A cargo-worthy unit is checked and sold wind and watertight — that is the grade to buy if what is going in it matters. An as-is unit is cheaper again and is not sold as watertight; it may have a patched roof, a tired floor or doors that need persuading. For hay, fencing wire or a parts bin under cover, as-is can be a genuinely good buy. For cartons, chemical or anything with an electric motor in it, it is not. We will tell you plainly which one you are looking at, and if you ask we will send photos of the actual unit before it is delivered so you can decide for yourself rather than take our word for it.
The container is rarely the problem. The last kilometre usually is.
The road in. Sealed to the town, and then it varies. Tell us whether the last stretch is formed road, gravel or a paddock track, and tell us about any grid we have to cross and what it is rated to. A truck that cannot cross a grid is a delivery that does not happen.
Ground condition. Dry, this country is excellent — firm, level, room to swing. After a decent fall it is a different place. A headland or a track that carries a ute all year will bog a loaded sidelifter, and a bogged truck two hours from town is everyone's bad day. If the pad is soft, ring us and we will move the delivery a few days. That is a much better outcome than a recovery bill.
Orchard rows. Worth saying out loud because it catches people: mature citrus rows are lower and tighter than they look from the ute, and irrigation mainlines and risers run where a truck wants to put its legs. Pick the drop point away from the rows, on the hardstand near the shed if there is one.
Overhead. Powerlines, feeders, and the big shade trees near the homestead that nobody has trimmed for a decade. A sidelifter needs genuine clearance above the drop point, not just above the truck.
Room. Roughly 20 metres of straight clear run for a tilt-tray with a 10ft or 20ft, and around 30 metres of working room plus firm level standing for a sidelifter with a 40ft. There is a full rundown in what we need to get a container onto your block.
The Burnett is the same river up here as it is in town, and parts of this country have been under it. Anything sitting on flats or in a low corner should be sited with that in mind. To be clear about what the steel does: a cargo-worthy container is watertight against rain from above, not against water coming up. Rising water finds the door seals, gets in, and then the box holds it. An empty container is also buoyant and will move in deep enough water.
So put it on the high point of the block rather than the convenient corner, get it up on blocks or sleepers under the four corner castings, and leave truck access so it can be lifted and moved if it ever needs to be. There is more on that in what steel will and won't do in a flood.
Guide pricing, ex GST, and the delivered number depends on where you are and what is in the yard that week. Used 20ft from $2,200 and new single-trip from $3,300. Used 40ft from $2,600, new from $5,500. High cube used from $3,400, new from $5,500. If you only need it for a season, 20ft hire starts from $27 a week.
Freight is quoted with the container rather than published, because it depends on the distance and on what the truck has to do when it gets there. One call gets you an exact number.
Five minutes on the phone about where it is going and what is going in it saves more money than any amount of comparing tables. Tell us the town, the block and the job — 07 4152 3388 — and we will tell you the size and grade we would buy if it were ours. If it is easier, send a photo of the approach and the spot with your enquiry and we will price it properly the first time.
Delivery detail for the towns is on the Gayndah page, and the rest of our run is on the delivery areas page.
What contractors, boat owners and residents at Burnett Heads and the port precinct put in a container, why height matters at a river mouth, and how deliveries differ between the hardstand and the old village streets.
An honest rundown of what a shipping container actually protects you from around Bundaberg, where height beats sealing every time, and how to use one as storage you can move before a rise.
Why containers at Bargara, Woodgate and Hervey Bay age differently to ones in town, which grade to buy near the water, and the maintenance that adds a decade.
One call, one delivered number, freight included.