Australia Post develops new 89-hectare warehouse at Goodman estate

Australia Post has committed to a 10-year lease at Oakdale West to develop a warehouse that can process up to 450,000 parcels per day.

Spanning almost eight football fields, the site will house a parcel processing facility, delivery centre and an extensive conveyor and sortation system once developed at the Goodman Group and Brickworks $3 billion Oakdale West Industrial Estate in Kemps Creek.

The new AusPost facility sits beside Amazon’s mammoth robotic fulfilment centre, which is set to be the largest warehouse in the country.

Developing the site has become critical as the parcel delivery company prepares for the upcoming Christmas onslaught of deliveries.

Last month, Australia Post chief executive Paul Graham warned that this Christmas period will be the “busiest in history” and that shoppers must get their cards and parcels early to avoid delays.

Goodman Australia chief executive Jason Little said the unprecedented growth in warehousing and logistics over the last 18 months has created demand for high-quality industrial space in this pocket of Western Sydney.

“There are more than 4.4 million people with a digital spend of around $15.6 billion within an hour’s drive of the Oakdale estate, and it provides unrivalled access to this market,” Little said.

The expansion is fuelled by e-commerce demand, with Australia Post joining a growing list of other high-profile businesses such as Amazon, Coles and Woolworths requiring speed to market and easy access to consumers.

The 89-hectare Oakdale facility sits on the doorstep of the Western Sydney Aerotropolis with access to the M7 and M4 motorways.

Knight Frank Australia’s industrial market report for the third quarter of 2021 reveals that investment volumes in the sector for 2021 will go beyond $14 billion, which is almost double the pre-pandemic high of 2019.

Knight Frank Australia Director head of industrial research, Katy Dean, said competition for industrial stock continues to intensify.

“This, in turn, is pushing some markets like Sydney’s Western precincts and Melbourne’s West and South East to a critical shortage of prime existing stock, and therefore compressing the volume of available secondary supply considerably too,” Dean said.

Construction of the Australia Post warehouse is due to start early in 2022 and complete in August 2022.