A major concern for us before hitting the road was, how are we going to receive mail while travelling Australia full-time in a caravan with no fixed address?
Receiving your mail on the road may feel like a tricky task, but it’s actually very simple.
There are a variety of ways to receive mail while travelling Australia, including 24/7 Parcel Lockers and local Post Offices. You can also utilise addresses of friends and family, plus Caravan Parks. Once you get a system in place, getting the mail becomes easy and automated.
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Receiving Mail While Travelling Australia
Prior to hitting the road
It’s super handy to be able to receive online purchases and birthday presents while travelling Australia. But, you don’t want to be chasing bills and other important mail all over the countryside.
Before hitting the road, it’s important to convert all of your bills to paperless, so you receive them via email. Setting up many of your bills as Direct Debits will also help to streamline your expenses.
24/7 Parcel Lockers
Australia Post’s 24/7 Parcel Lockers are definitely the easiest and most convenient way to receive mail while travelling without a permanent address. With over 330 locations around the country, they’re very easy to find. Locations range from Post Offices, Train Stations, Petrol Stations and Supermarkets.
If there are no 24/7 Parcel Lockers in the town where you need your mail sent, just select a Post Office instead. Smaller towns are generally happy to hang on to your stuff longer than the bigger, busier cities. But don’t worry, if you can’t get there in time, just ring the Post Office and let them know. They will either hold it longer or forward the post to another location for you.
24/7 Parcel Locker Features:
- FREE
- Accessible any time (day, night, weekends, after hours)
- 48 hours to collect (then it goes to the nearest Post Office)
- Notifications via SMS & Email
- Change your address as you travel & the system automatically updates the delivery location
- Track your parcels with tracking numbers
How to Use 24/7 Parcel Lockers
Setting up a 24/7 Parcel Locker is really simple. Start by downloading the Australia Post App on your mobile device and create an account.
When you’re ready to shop online or give your Mum an address, just ‘Add Parcel Locker’ and find the location you need. The address and number that is generated now becomes your new ‘Address.’
Your Customer Number will always stay the same, only your address associated with it will change. You will receive notifications via SMS and email when the parcel has arrived, then you can use the barcode you are issued, to scan and open your locker.
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Local Post Offices
When you’re travelling in the Outback, there are no Parcel Lockers. You are still able to use the Australia Post App to choose (ahead of time) a Post Office to have your stuff delivered to.
It’s worked out really well so far when we’ve travelled through those areas. The Post Offices are usually happy to hang on to your mail a little longer if you get held up somewhere. Just be sure to ring ahead and have a chat to the staff.
TIP – Always include your ‘Customer Number’ in your address so that you receive the notification when the parcel arrives.
The hardest part is trying to figure out where you’re going to be when the parcel is expected to arrive. Just to give you an idea, it took 3-5 weeks for post to be delivered to us in Mount Isa, Queensland! But packages along the East Coast were arriving within a week.
Below is a great video of how Sparky’s on the Loose get their mail from local post offices as they travel.
Friends & Family
If you know that you’re going to drop in to visit friends or family members in the near future, it makes for a really safe and easy option to receive mail while travelling (as long as they don’t mind).
A bonus is that you don’t have to worry about getting to a Post Office or missing deliveries if you end up in the wrong town at the wrong time! This is especially the case when ordering stuff online from overseas, which can arrive quicker than expected or even get delayed somewhere along the line.
Caravan Parks
If you’re staying in a Caravan Park for a while, you can ask if they mind you using their address for mail. Most don’t mind and it’s pretty convenient if you don’t have a fixed address.
We did this when we were stopped in The Gemfields for 6 weeks work. The Caravan Park owner collected all mail from the Post Office once a week. She would go around and hand it all out to the relevant people. Be sure to order things ahead of time so you don’t hit the road before your packages manage to arrive.
Hopefully you’ve now got a good idea on how you want to be able to receive mail and parcels while travelling Australia. It’s actually a really simple process once you’ve got everything in place.
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All our mail was redirected to sons address, who had prepaid express post bags, that were addressed to us c/- Nominated post office that we advised by txt message (about every 3 weeks) its was noted on bag that we were travellers. He was also instructed to open anything he thought was important & ring us. This worked for us we were away 9 months
That sounds like a good system, thanks for sharing.
Technology has revolutionised much of our lives, but not all caravan mail can be delivered over the internet; we still need to use ‘snail mail’ to get letters and important documents delivered to us, wherever we are. Likewise, package forwarding while on the road is almost inevitable: how else will you retrieve something left behind at the last caravan park, or collect those new glasses that didn’t arrive before you were due to move on? Forwarding mail is a tricky business when you’re travelling, especially if you’re not following a strict route or schedule.
Absolutely. Technology has made life so much easier for us in that respect.
It was good to learn about the parcel system – I hadn’t known about it since I hadn’t come across a situation during my travels in which I needed to use this. It sure sounds like quite a convenient option while visiting Australia.
Many people don’t ever have need of it, but it’s super handy when you do.
I’ve actually never been a long enough trip to need stuff mailed somewhere other than my home, but these are really helpful tips! Australia’s 24/7 parcel box system is pretty cool – not sure if we have something like that in the US, I’ll have to find out for future reference!
Yeah, it certainly makes long-term travel easier.
I never knew this was an option as I’ve never run into this situation. I wonder if other countries offer this service for travelers who need a “very” temporarily mailing address. As traveling for months at a time is becoming more and more popular I am happy to see Australia stepping in and helping travelers.
I’m not sure about other countries, but it’s great here in Australia. I wonder if others will follow suit.
Well, that’s a cool idea! I’m familiar with some of the lockers we have here in the US, mostly for people who want a safe place for their Amazon orders to be delivered while they’re at work all day, but didn’t know anything like this was out there!
It’s been around in Australia for a few years now through Australia Post. Very handy for travellers.
I was wondering what you do about mail when on the road constantly. The app sounds handy and the parcel lockers are a really great idea, especially for the all important online shopping deliveries.
Absolutely!
That’s a really cool app and system! I’m going to guess it only works if you are an Aussie native traveling around Australia? Or does it work for internationals too even though that would probably get expensive? Very awesome idea and truly helpful for longterm travel!
Hmm that’s a really good point. I don’t think it should matter because you change your address as you travel. But I’m not sure if you needed a residential address to sign up in the first place – I can’t remember.
All tried and true tricks that there are various versions of around the world. Super useful insight into accessing parcels and mail on a long-term adventure in Australia.
Cheers Michael.
What a super convenient article! Traveling by campervan around Australia is pretty high up on the bucket list. It’s good to know that you can get post along your travels.
It’s pretty easy. We thought it’d be a pain in the butt to be honest, but it’s working out well with the 24-7 Parcel Lockers.
Pretty cool parcel system, like Amazon lockers here in the US. As someone who has done longterm travel, I know sometimes these types of services are needed! Great insight!
Oh okay, I haven’t ever used the Amazon lockers, but they sound convenient.
I have to admit, I have seen something similiar in other countries but never really looked into them (as I have never had the need to use them). Now after reading I got a better understanding of parcel lockers and who knows, I might have to use them in the future 🙂
You just never know. We’d never looked into them either until we actually had need of them.