Defence Postings

Posting orders come through, the reporting date is fixed, and everything else has to arrange itself around it. We move a lot of vehicles for ADF families, and the pattern is consistent enough that we plan for it.

What is different about a Defence move

The date is not negotiable. Most civilian moves have a week of slack somewhere. A posting does not. You report when you report, and the vehicle needs to have already sorted itself out by then.

The bases are rarely convenient. Townsville, Darwin, Tindal, Puckapunyal, Wagga, Cerberus, Edinburgh. A lot of postings are to places well off the main freight corridors, which changes both transit time and departure frequency.

Posting season is a genuine capacity crunch. The December–January cycle moves an enormous number of families at once, into the same weeks that every other Australian moves house. That is the single busiest period of our year.

How we handle it

• Book against the reporting date, working backwards from it rather than forwards from today
• Multiple vehicles on one truck: car, second car, bike, all together and quoted as one job
• Collection or delivery to base where access permits, or a sensible nearby point where it does not
• Nominated collection: a partner, a family member or a colleague can receive the vehicle if you are already deployed or in transit
• Storage at the destination depot if the vehicle arrives before your housing does, which on posting happens constantly

If you are posting in December or January

Book four to six weeks out. Not because we are trying to rush you, but because posting season and Christmas land on top of each other and capacity genuinely runs out. Every year, without exception.