10ft10ft Shipping Containers
The side passage is narrow, the council setback leaves you nothing to play with, or all you need is somewhere lockable for a mower, a compressor and a rack of tools.
Used from$4,350
New from$6,400
Lismore, NSW
Shipping containers Lismore
There is no writing about Lismore without writing about water, and no point writing about water unless we are going to be straight. A container is a good store and it is not flood protection. What it gives you here is a dry, lockable box that can sit on the high part of the block, hold what matters, and be emptied in an afternoon when the river starts coming up.
- Delivered from
- the south-east Queensland depots, run down the Pacific and west on the Bruxner
- Typical lead time
- Usually 2–4 business days; river-flat drops move with the weather rather than against it
- Usual truck
- Tilt-tray for 10ft and 20ft; crane truck where the block is tight or the container is going up onto a stand
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.
First, the things that are specific to here.
What the containers do here
Around Lismore we deliver containers for storage while a house is raised, repaired or rebuilt, tools and materials for owner-builders on a job that has taken years, not months, gear for the trades and community groups working across the district, machinery and feed storage on the blocks out through Clunes, Bexhill and Dunoon, secure storage for small businesses working out of a yard, and dry storage up on the higher ground at Goonellabah for people whose sheds are not coming back.
What the site has to allow for
Lismore is two different delivery towns divided by about thirty metres of elevation. The flats — South Lismore, North Lismore, the CBD fringe and the ground along the Wilsons River and Leycester Creek — are alluvial silt. It is beautiful soil and it behaves like every other river silt we work on: it dries to something that feels like hardstand, and after a wet week it will let a loaded rear axle down without warning. A lot of those blocks now have a raised house on them, which changes the job again, because the usable ground is often underneath or beside a structure on stands, with restricted headroom and services running where they did not run before. The hill suburbs are the other half. Goonellabah, East Lismore, Girards Hill and the streets climbing out of the basin are steep and short on frontage, with driveways that pitch hard at the kerb and back yards you reach down a strip of concrete a Falcon was built for. Those are frequently crane jobs rather than tilt-tray jobs, and the deciding factors are what is overhead and how much street the outriggers can have. Beyond town it changes again. The roads out to Dunoon, Nimbin, Clunes and Bexhill are winding red-soil country roads with tight corners, single-lane bridges and sections that have been repaired, slipped and repaired again. Some carry width restrictions after slips. Red basalt on the ridges is excellent ground and holds a truck when everything below is bogged, which is why a hill delivery will often go ahead on a day the flats will not. Send photos and we will tell you which category your block is in before we quote a truck for it.
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 Lismore
Guide prices in AUD, ex GST. Delivery is quoted with the container.
10ft
20ft20ft Shipping Containers
You have about seven metres of straight, reasonably level ground to put it on and you would rather not find out in six months that you should have gone bigger.
Used from$2,200
New from$3,300
40ft40ft Shipping Containers
You have the room, the access is genuinely open, and you want the most storage per dollar available anywhere.
Used from$2,600
New from$5,500
Lismore
Being straight about containers and floodwater
A shipping container keeps rain out from above. It is not sealed against water pushing at it from outside, and that is not a defect — it was never designed for it. Water that reaches the door sill gets past the seals, and once it is inside, the container holds it in as efficiently as it kept it out. The second thing matters even more here: a container that is empty or lightly loaded is a large sealed volume with very little weight in it, and it floats. Things that float move, and in this valley things that move end up against somebody's house, across a road or in the river. Anybody who tells you a container is flood protection is selling you something they should not be selling, and after 2022 nobody in this town needs that explained to them.
So the useful conversation is about what actually helps, and there are three things. Height above the flood line on your particular block, which is the only one that really counts. The ability to empty it, which is why a container you can reach with a vehicle and open quickly is worth more than one wedged behind a fence. And placement that limits the damage if the worst happens — not sited where a floating box would go straight into the house, a neighbour's place or the watercourse. Keeping contents up on pallets is good practice against damp and does nothing at all against a metre of water. We would rather tell you that now than have you find out.
On the ground
Where height comes from on a Lismore block
Height on a block is mostly a siting decision and it is free. Put the container on the highest usable ground rather than the flattest or the most convenient, and keep it out of the overland flow path, because a lot of the damage in this district comes from water running across properties rather than the river simply backing up. Setting it on hardwood sleepers or concrete pads lifts the floor a hundred to two hundred millimetres, and a purpose-built stand or a set of stacked and packed pads can get it further. Be clear-eyed about what that buys: it makes a real difference in a minor event and against ground damp, and it is meaningless against a major one. That is not a reason to skip it — it is a reason not to mistake it for a solution. Level it properly while you are at it, door end on the high side, so the doors keep swinging cleanly rather than binding as one corner settles.
Worth knowing
Storage through a rebuild that takes years
A lot of what we do here is storage attached to a job with no clean end date on it. A house being raised, a repair waiting on a trade, a build that has stopped and restarted twice. That is what makes hire worth looking at rather than an automatic purchase: you are not tying up capital in an asset you will be trying to move on, and when the work finally finishes you ring us and it goes away rather than becoming your problem to sell. It also means you can swap to a bigger or smaller unit if the job changes shape, which buying does not let you do without selling and buying again. Where buying wins is when the container has quietly become the shed — the permanent store on a block where the outbuilding is not being replaced, or the workshop out the back that is now part of how the place works. Either way, if it is holding household contents outdoors for years, ask for cargo-worthy: every cargo-worthy unit is checked wind and watertight before it leaves the yard. As-is units are cheaper and are not sold as watertight, and for contents you cannot replace that is the whole decision.
What delivery to Lismore costs
There is no flat delivery rate here worth publishing. What the truck has to do at your end changes it too much, so we quote it per job.
Ring us, tell us what is going in it and what the access is like, and we will tell you which grade and which truck the job needs before anyone talks money.
Around the same run
We also deliver to Goonellabah, Nimbin, Clunes, Bexhill, Casino and the surrounding district. If your town is not on the list, ring — it almost certainly still works.
Common questions
Buying a container in Lismore
Will a shipping container keep my things dry if Lismore floods again?
Not on its own, and we will not pretend otherwise. A container keeps rain out from above, but it is not sealed against water pushing from outside — once floodwater reaches the door sill it gets past the seals, and then the container holds it in. What protects your things is height above the flood line on your block, and being able to empty the container and move contents when a warning comes. Site it on the highest usable ground, keep it reachable, and treat it as good dry storage rather than as a barrier.
Can a shipping container float away in a flood?
Yes. An empty or lightly loaded container is a large sealed volume with very little weight in it, and it will lift and move in deep enough water. That is worth planning for rather than ignoring. Do not site one where a floating box would be carried into your house, a neighbour's house or a watercourse, and understand that no tie-down we could describe here makes it reliable in a major event. Height above the flood line and being able to empty it are the two things that actually help.
We are having the house raised. Can a container hold the contents in the meantime?
That is one of the most common reasons people around here call us. It arrives finished and lockable on the day, needs no slab and no approval process for a temporary store on most blocks, and it keeps household goods dry and secure while the trades work around it. Ask for cargo-worthy, since every cargo-worthy unit is checked wind and watertight before it leaves the yard. Set it on pads with the door end on the high side, keep contents on pallets so air moves, and hire rather than buy if the job has no firm finish date.
Do you deliver out to Nimbin, Dunoon and Clunes?
Yes, and those runs are usually easier ground than the flats, because the ridges out that way are red basalt and hold a truck well. The roads are the variable rather than the soil — winding, tightly cornered, with single-lane bridges and sections that have slipped and been repaired more than once, and some carry width restrictions. A 20ft goes out there comfortably. A 40ft needs the approach checked first. Give us the road name and a photo from your gate looking back toward it and we will tell you what will make it.
Get a price
Get a price for your address
We deliver to Lismore 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 — 0477 410 500, Mon–Fri 7:30am–5pm, Sat 8am–12pm