r/AustraliaPost

Hi everyone!

Seeking info/advice on cancelling an international shipment. TL;DR at the bottom.

I posted a 14kg parcel via sea, untracked (cheapest option) on May 30th 2026 from southeastern Queensland to my parents’ home address in Ontario, Canada before travelling abroad. I’ve shipped a few parcels via sea/untracked a few times over the years and it usually takes 2, max 3 months. It’s a hiking backpack full of sentimental stuff like old uniforms, clothing and mementos, not valuable or vital for my trip/life but it would have been a burden to check and drag through several countries (shoutout to r/onebag community). 

In the parcel is also some spare (but good!) diving gear that I would have ideally used while in North America, but wouldn’t be gutted if it didn’t get there in time. I put an AirTag in the bag, paid the nice lady, and flew out a couple days later for an extended multi-continental trip, with my final destination visiting family in Canada by mid-August.

I’ve been checking on it periodically, and it got to the Aus Post Sydney gateway facility 3 days after I posted it. I’m in Canada now and as of 13 minutes ago it is STILL IN AUSTRALIA, a whole 3 months later. I knew it would take a while, and I accepted the risk, but at this point I will be coming home to Queensland in a few weeks and I’d rather try to cancel and have the dive gear for friends/spares. The MyPost portal does not have options for canceling/redirecting for obvious reasons, so I’ll need to contact them within Aus business hours (I'm 14 hours behind).

Sooo in the meantime I’m appealing to the fine Redditors of Australia. Has anyone successfully cancelled an international shipment due to delays (or any reason really), or have any resources/advice on how to get help from Aus Post contact center? If you don’t have any personal experience, feel free to entertain the group by sharing your most frustrating AusPost lore.

Thanks for reading my first world problem post! Wishing everyone a pleasant day without delays.

TL;DR: posted a bag internationally on May 30th via sea cargo without tracking, from southeast Queensland to Ontario, Canada with an AirTag. Usual delivery time ~2-3 months. FindMy app shows the parcel still sitting in Sydney, but I’m coming home to Queensland soon so I want to try and cancel before it gets on a ship. Any advice or Auspost anecdotes welcome!

https://preview.redd.it/05hqyqx0ndkh1.jpg?width=1258&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a53fa5de7eac6386073c00385e3282acf4cec1f3

https://preview.redd.it/t64pdsx0ndkh1.png?width=1179&format=png&auto=webp&s=3d7cd4c352b598963984e011700177e1b1aa7120

Packaging costs 10-20AUD and delivery costs another 10-20AUD just for items under 5kg. The cost is insanely high for a e-commerce startup as people are not going to pay another 40AUD just for a 5kg parcel. How do you cope with this?

PS: Thank for the opinion. I was horrified by the Australia Post's own packaging prices.

https://preview.redd.it/7yxil5jg7bkh1.png?width=560&format=png&auto=webp&s=871d84b386e38704b3b8805bf950b3b6bf59d7df

I know someone who has been buying these for like $2 per mailer at the post office and the worker stamps it? I'm not entirely sure what the stamp says though but it's then just sent in a street posting box like a normal letter and it arrives? No tracking or anything, it seems to get sent like an ordinary untracked letter. Does anyone know anything more about this? I want to try it but am unsure of whether this actually works or not. It's not for anything heavy weight, just trading cards and would prefer the extra protection from padding without needing to pay $10 in postage.

hey guys,

i had a mail/envelope sent by the sender to my parcel locker. i gave him the parcel locker because i thought it was a parcel not an envelope . it was sent on 31 July according to sender, and as of 19 August i have not received anything.

I know parcel lockers do not take mail, so what will happen? Will it get redirected to my house or sent back to sender, throw in some large pile of lost mail? Kept at post office?

I already went to my 2 local Auspost at 8 August and they had nothing aswell.

Any info/help will be appreciate! I know this is such a dumb mistake.

I am a dual citizen and I went to the post office with my documentation to renew my passport, including Aus Citizenship Certificate.
The post office took my photo and application but did not send the citizenship certificate with the application.
Is that correct? I was under the impression I would need to send it with my application.

Trying to order something from Asia and ECMS is a cheaper shipping option but I want it delivered to a parcel locker so I need it to come through Aus Post, couldn't find any recent info about ECMS related to Australia so any help/experience will be much appreciated!

Cheers!

I’ve heard from several large contractors that tenders can no longer be transferred or allocated to someone they know. Instead, everything now has to go through the e-tender process.
I also know of a subcontractor truck company that recently lost their tender because Australia Post decided to use their own employees instead.
Is anyone else seeing this shift, or has anyone else been affected?

Hey guys, quick question.

I noticed I can purchase bulk prepaid post bags on eBay for like $8.50 each but when I purchase them in store they are significantly dearer.

Is there any reason for this? I'm not complaining. Just curious how places make money like this lmao.

Item got sent to a parcel locker but I don’t have a sms or barcode to scan and the post office doesn’t have the package unsure what to do

I don’t want to post the tracking reference but can anyone confirm why something would have cleared international customs but then not getting received in another state?

I will never understand why my postie will shove big ass packages into our tiny letterbox, when they clearly don't fit and is incredibly visible to pedestrians walking past. Needed to rant somewhere because why can't they take 10 seconds out of their day to walk an extra 10 mtrs to my front door and leave it in a "safe" place (of which there are plenty of btw) just not the f***ing letter box! So over it. Obviously now I have a note asking them to kindly leave at the door but sometimes they do ignore it still and i wonder if they do it on purpose just to piss me off.

Discovered today that Australia Post (AP) is now discontinuing its contract with Western Union for international money transfers over next weeks/months. Does anyone know a non-AP Western Union ‘branch’ in NE Melbourne?

Hoping someone might know if there’s a way to check this with Australia Post.

We applied for my son’s passport from overseas and, because we were in the middle of moving at the time, we had it sent to my aunt’s address.

We’ve now received confirmation that the passport/package has been sent to the consulate in Canberra, but my aunt hasn’t received anything. It needs to be signed for, so we know it couldn’t have just been left at the house. She also hasn't seen a missed delivery card.

We’re trying to get more information from the consulate as well, including hopefully getting a tracking number, but they don’t respond to emails or answer the phone, so getting any sort of answer out of them is really difficult.

In the meantime, is there any way to contact Australia Post or the local Post Office and give them my name and/or the delivery address to find out whether delivery was attempted / if itwas taken to the Post Office for collection / there’s any record of it being delivered to that address?

Our application forms were sent in a self-addressed return envelope, but unfortunately, we don’t have a tracking number, which obviously makes things a bit more difficult.

Has anyone dealt with something similar or know if Australia Post can look something up using the recipient/address details?

I was supposed to have a parcel delivered but the brain trust at Auspost said that their driver tried to knock but no one was home in fairness he did supply a picture holding the parcel at the door.

The problem is I work from home and he definitely didn't knock or ring the doorbell and their response to me asking them to redeliver was short of footage of him not ringing/knocking they wouldn't do it.

Is this really what it has to come down to I gotta install CCTV and ring doorbells to capture a guy in 4K HD before they're willing to do something? I've never dealt with a worse service than Auspost and its genuinely not even close.

Is there anything I can do in addition to complaining to them? I've never ever had this problem with Amazon or DHL I have no idea why these guys are allergic to using the doorbell and this isn't even the first time of this thing happening with them.

Any tips/advice is welcome.