The rise and rise of online shopping is driving a multimillion-dollar expansion in regional NSW by Australia Post.
The national postal service is developing six greenfield sites—at Tumut, Leeton, Casino, Deniliquin, Forbes and Byron Bay—to “bolster capacity to support parcel volume growth and improve service across rural and regional communities”.
Construction of the 600sq m Tumut development is under way and scheduled to open in late 2025.
Four mid-sized facilities are due to begin construction in early 2026—a 1105sq m facility at Leeton, 440km west of Sydney; a 1350sq m facility at Casino, 580km north of Sydney; a 1335sq m building at Deniliquin, 600km south-west of Sydney; and 1796sq m for Forbes, 300km west of Sydney.
All are expected to be completed by the end of next year.
Construction will begin at the largest facility, a 3072sq m site at Byron Bay, in mid-2026. It is due to open in mid-2027.
“These locations were chosen because they’re key growth areas where demand for parcel deliveries continues to rise or where current operational capability is being constrained,” an Australia Post spokesperson told The Urban Developer.
“By investing in new, modern sites, we’re not only addressing today’s challenges but also setting ourselves up to grow into the future.”
The purpose-built facilities are each designed to handle 900 to 2200 parcels daily.
“These new facilities are purpose-built to handle the growing demands of letter and parcel operations,” the spokesperson said.
“With more space, better layout and improved transport flow, our delivery teams will be able to get on the road more quickly and efficiently to deliver for our customers.”
Each will feature 50kW rooftop solar-power generation, and some locations will also harvest rainwater and offer electric-vehicle-charging infrastructure.
Australia Post general manager network development and support services Shane Plant said its own data showed online retail was continuing to rise.
“In New South Wales, we’ve seen online purchases increase by 2.8 per cent year-on-year [between 2018 and 2024 and] 82 per cent of NSW households are now shopping online,” he said.
“As regional areas increasingly depend on e-commerce due to fewer physical retail offerings, these purpose-built sites will enable Australia Post to meet the growing parcel demand in these regions.”
The postal service has also acquired a brownfield site at Narrandera, 440km south-west of Sydney, and is in negotiations to lease brownfield sites at Cooma, 325km south of Sydney, and Ballina, in the state’s north-east corner.
This regional NSW investment is part of a broader nationwide expansion, with additional sites planned across all regional Australian states and territories.
“Beyond speed and efficiency, we’re focused on providing safer workplaces for our team members and building environmentally responsible infrastructure that can serve communities well into the future,” Plant said.
Australia Post delivers more than 2.3 billion items to 12.7 million delivery points annually and operates more than 4000 post offices nationally.
In February it was reported that profits at Australia Post for the first half year to December 31, 2024, were up from $215.5 million to $249.1 million compared with the same period last year, with revenues rising 6.3 per cent to $5.01 billion.
Australia Post was unable to confirm details of the developers or builders working on these projects.
