Beyond Freight: How Shipping Containers Are Supporting Australia’s Remote Economy

Australia is a country with truly unique geography. Almost nine in ten Australians live within 50km/30mi of the coast, leaving the island nation with a vast and sparsely populated rural centre – and a subsequent lack of remote infrastructure.

It's hard to overstate just how valuable containers have become to rural and regional Australia. From site offices, to off-grid living, to secure and transportable storage, shipping container conversions have filled the void for remote communities and commercial enterprises alike. From a certain perspective they have become the lifeblood of the rural economy.

The reason is simple: they're a portable, cost-effective, durable, customisable and readily available building material.

Outback construction challenges

It's difficult to build things in the Aussie outback. With infrastructure constrained to the coast, traditional approaches to construction – whether on mine sites, stations or private land – face acute shortages of skilled labour, extreme lead times and far higher material costs than anywhere else in the country.

According to Rawlinsons, building costs in mining towns carry a 40%-75% loading over capital city baselines, while the most remote sites can see jumps of up to 150%.

It can be near-impossible to secure the necessary skills and materials that traditional builds require. So remote businesses and communities are increasingly turning to a readymade, readily available, cost-effective and ultra-adaptable alternative: shipping containers.

The rural container-building boom

Shipping containers are designed to last a decade or more in some of the harshest conditions imaginable: the open ocean. They need to stay weatherproof while being constantly exposed to sun, moisture and salt spray, while also dealing with occasional bumps, scrapes and impacts.

They've proven just as strong and resilient in the Australian outback, and often more so.

Their newfound status as the go-to building material in rural and regional Australia is powering the spectacular growth of the Australian shipping container market, which is projected to grow from US$254 million to US$440+ million over the next decade.

Shipping container remote infrastructure use cases

Shipping containers are used for a wealth of different uses in rural and remote Australia, including:

• Mining infrastructure: Secure storage, mobile workshops, site offices, worker accommodation.
• Civil construction: Modular site offices, high value equipment/hazardous material storage.
• Farm structures: Equipment and material storage, home offices, workshops.
• Small businesses: Retail and event spaces, portable market stalls, overflow storage.
• Residential structures: Off-grid homes, sunrooms, vehicle storage, garden sheds, container pools.

The time, effort and investment required to repurpose a shipping container can vary from near-zero for secure storage, which often won't require any conversion work at all (as most containers come with lockable doors), to significant for functional working and living spaces, which can demand insulation, power, plumbing, climate control and complete internal fit-outs.

But even these high-end projects demand minimal specialist skills, and can be largely completed by unskilled labourers and DIYers.

Why containers are the ultimate remote building material

There are myriad reasons why shipping containers are well suited to remote Australian use cases.

• Availability: Millions of shipping containers in Australia age out of the oceangoing fleet every year, and thousands travel to and around Australia's red centre every day.
• Portability: Intermodal shipping containers can travel by sea, rail or road. The tilt tray and side loader trucks that navigate the last mile can drop units almost anywhere.
• Cost-effectiveness: At a few thousand dollars for a used wind and watertight (WWT) unit, containers are one of the most economical building materials available.
• Durability: When maintained well, containers can last decades on land, even in the harshest conditions regional Australia can muster.
• Adaptability: These simple steel boxes can connect and stack, be augmented and enhanced, and transformed into almost any sort of structure you can imagine.

This isn't to say that containers don't have drawbacks as a building material. Care must be taken to ensure used units are weatherproof. They typically won't last as long as traditionally-built structures. The narrow internal footprint can be limiting in certain applications. Skilled professionals are still required for utilities and structural assessments.

But when the pros are weighed against the cons – a calculation made by an increasing number of residential and commercial buyers seeking to build a remote structure – shipping containers can become the obvious (and often only) option.

A neat answer to an otherwise intractable problem

Remote Australia won't become more connected to the rest of the country any time soon – the distances are too vast, and the settlements are often temporary. Traditional building methods will continue to be unviable for the foreseeable future in most cases.

But in shipping containers, regional and rural Australians have found a solution to these problems, and one that they can capitalise on today.