What it costs by home size
Backloading is priced per cubic metre, so your home size is your price. These are indicative totals inc GST — the quote tool is the source of truth, and it'll give you a fixed number in about a minute.
| Home size | Volume | Price inc GST | What that is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 8 m³ | $1,350 | Bed, sofa, desk, ten boxes |
| 1-bed apt | 16 m³ | $2,700 | Queen bed, sofa, dining set, fridge |
| 2-bed homeMost common | 26 m³ | $4,400 | The most common move on this lane |
| 3-bed home | 36 m³ | $6,050 | Three bedrooms, study, full kitchen |
| 4-bed home | 50 m³ | $8,450 | Check a dedicated truck too — you're close to filling one |
Not sure of your volume? Work out your m³ here — it takes five minutes and it's the only input that really moves the price.
Why this lane costs more per kilometre
Melbourne–Brisbane is about 1,675 km against Sydney–Melbourne's 878 km, but the per-kilometre rate is higher too, and it's worth understanding why rather than assuming someone's gouging you.
Frequency is the first reason. Sydney–Melbourne runs daily; this lane runs three times a week. Fewer departures means each truck carries more of the fixed cost — the driver's days, the fuel, the tolls — across fewer customers, and it means less chance that a perfectly-shaped load turns up to fill the last few metres.
Return-leg demand is the second. Backloading only works because the truck was going anyway, and the discount reflects how badly the operator wants to fill that space. Brisbane–Melbourne southbound freight is thinner than the Hume corridor's, so there's less spare capacity competing for your load.
It's still comfortably the cheapest way to move a normal household this distance. A dedicated truck bills you for two days of a driver's life plus the empty return; backloading bills you for the space you occupy.
- 3× weekly departures vs daily on SYD↔MEL — less cost-sharing
- Thinner southbound return freight = less competition to fill the truck
- Still ~25% under a dedicated move for the same 1,675 km
- You pay for the space you occupy, not the driver's two days
Timing: the part you control
Pickup windows on this lane run 5–7 business days from booking, and transit is two days. So the honest end-to-end answer is: book at least a fortnight before you need to be in your new place, and you'll never feel the schedule.
Two levers actually change the number. Flexible dates — accepting a ±1 week window — takes 10% off the linehaul automatically, because it lets us slot you onto whichever of the three weekly trucks has the most empty space. On a 2-bedroom move that's about $420 for doing nothing. Going the other way, needing pickup inside the same week adds a $200 urgency surcharge and a weekend pickup adds $150, because we're then buying space rather than filling it.
Book 7–10 days ahead on this lane specifically. It's our lowest-frequency corridor, so a late booking doesn't just cost more — it can genuinely mean waiting for the next departure.
- ±1 week flexibility = 10% off, applied automatically
- Same-week pickup = +$200 urgency surcharge
- Book 7–10 days out; this is our least-frequent lane
- 15% deposit to lock the slot, balance on delivery
Going past Brisbane
A lot of this lane isn't really Brisbane. It's retirees heading for the Sunshine Coast, families landing on the Gold Coast, and the occasional long haul to Cairns.
Anything inside 150 km of Brisbane — Noosa, Maroochydore, Surfers, Burleigh — is a flat $120 last-mile add-on, which is far cheaper than booking a separate local truck at the other end. Tell us at quote time, not on delivery day: rerouting a load after it's on the deck is the one thing that genuinely costs money.
Beyond that, north Queensland runs via depot transfer. We bring your goods Melbourne to Brisbane on the regular truck, then a partner carrier runs the last leg — figure 15–25% above the Brisbane-only price, with 5–7 days total transit.