Redbank Motorway Estate: Ipswich’s Mega-Shed Freight Fortress

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You’ve driven past Redbank Motorway Estate 94 times and never thought twice.

Until now…

From the motorway, it’s just a row of giant sheds.

But did you know it is home to some seriously world-class facilities?

Why Companies Choose Redbank

A big company shopping for a Queensland base doesn’t ask, “Where’s the cheapest shed?”

It asks: can trucks get in and out? Can the site run all night? Can the building grow? Can staff get there? Can it serve Brisbane without sitting in Brisbane?

Redbank answers yes to all five.

Coles, Australia Post, FedEx, DB Schenker, Bapcor, L’Oreal, CHEP, Officeworks and Asahi worked that out.

The estate offers:

• Big sites with room to build properly.
• Direct motorway access. No trucks through suburban streets.
• Heavy vehicle routes rated for A-doubles and B-doubles.
• 24/7 operations for overnight freight.
• Room for automation: robotics, high-bay storage, big sorting gear.

To you: it’s “near the motorway”.

To a supply chain manager: it’s the perfect Queensland base.

The Location Play

Build one hub at Redbank and you can serve Brisbane, Ipswich, Toowoomba, the Gold Coast, northern NSW and the rest of Queensland.

Close enough to Brisbane to serve it. Far enough west to get land Brisbane can’t offer (and for less cost).

And once you build a custom facility, you don’t leave.

A basic warehouse can move. A robotic grocery centre sorting 4 million cases a week can’t. The building, machinery, loading docks, truck routes and staff systems all lock together.

These companies will be in Ipswich for decades.

Inside The Sheds

The numbers:

• Coles: up to four million grocery cases a week.
• Australia Post: up to 700,000 parcels a day.
• FedEx: automated sortation handling 15,000 parcels an hour.
• DB Schenker: more than 5,000 containers a year, after moving from Brisbane Airport.
• Officeworks: a 77,100 sqm centre under construction.
• Asahi: a $150m centre with robotics and high-speed shuttles.

Rheinmetall: Australia’s Most Advanced Military Vehicle Factory

Rheinmetall Defence Australia runs its Australian and New Zealand headquarters at the Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence in Redbank. The $170m, 11ha facility is described by the Queensland Government as Australia’s most advanced military vehicle manufacturing facility.

This is where Redbank shifts from “big sheds” into serious sovereign defence manufacturing.

• Factory scale: The production building is about 30,000 sqm and includes three vehicle production lines, a weld shop, armoury, prototyping workshop, turret and simulator assembly, paint booths, heavy maintenance and warehouse space.
• Test capability: The precinct includes an outdoor test track, a three-storey electromagnetic compatibility chamber and a 100m enclosed weapons test firing tunnel.
• Defence work: The facility supports Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicles, LAND 121 logistics vehicles and Rheinmetall’s wider defence projects for Australia and allied customers.

Australia Post: The Southern Hemisphere Parcel Giant

Australia Post runs its flagship Redbank parcel facility inside Redbank Motorway Estate. The $240m facility opened in 2019 and became the largest mail facility in the Southern Hemisphere.

At full capacity, it can process 700,000 parcels a day. Not envelopes. Parcels!

• Massive scale: The facility is about 50,000 sqm on a 130,000 sqm site, roughly the size of eight football fields.
• Parcel tech: It uses high-speed sorters, robotic arms, parcel pickers and automated guided vehicles to move parcels through the site overnight.
• Local jobs: Ipswich First reported more than 500 people employed on site when the facility opened.

Coles: The Southern Hemisphere’s Biggest Automated Grocery Hub

Coles opened its Redbank Automated Distribution Centre in 2023. It was Coles’ first Australian ADC using Witron technology, and Coles says it is the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

It services 219 Coles supermarkets across Queensland and northern NSW.

• Weekly output: At full capacity, the Redbank ADC can process up to four million cases a week, equal to about 32 million units sold in stores.
• Building scale: The Redbank site spans about 170,000 sqm, with a 66,000 sqm building and a 34m high-bay storage area.
• Automation impact: Coles says more than 90% of cases are processed through automation or ergonomically, removing almost 18 million kilograms of manual handling each week.

Officeworks: Queensland’s #3 Biggest Warehouse Project

Officeworks is building a 77,100 sqm omnichannel distribution centre at Redbank Motorway Estate. As of Jun 2026 it is 90% complete. It will replace the retailer’s existing 47,000 sqm Redbank site and support both store replenishment and online orders.

The simple local version: Officeworks is building the biggest shed in Redbank Motorway Estate.

• Size ranking: At 77,100 sqm, it appears to sit behind Woolworths’ 92,000 sqm Larapinta distribution centre and Amazon’s planned 150,000 sqm North Maclean fulfilment centre among publicly reported Queensland warehouse projects.
• Next-gen system: Goodman says the facility will use advanced automation and next-generation robotics to reduce manual handling and increase speed to customers.
• Sustainable build: The project targets a 5 Star Green Star rating, with a 1.5MW solar system, rainwater harvesting and energy-efficient design.

Bapcor: Ipswich’s #2 Biggest Solar Roof

Bapcor runs a large auto parts distribution centre at Redbank Motorway Estate. Goodman lists it as a 44,000 sqm purpose-built facility consolidating the Autobarn, Autopro, Truckline, Midas and Burson Auto Parts businesses.

The roof is one of the quiet headline acts: a 1.8MW solar array.

• Parts network: Bapcor is one of Australasia’s major automotive aftermarket groups, covering trade, retail, specialist wholesale and service brands.
• Solar roof: The Redbank facility carries a 1.8MW rooftop solar system, which ranks as Ipswich’s #2 biggest solar roof in our local solar count.
• One hub: Bapcor said the Queensland DC would consolidate seven Brisbane warehouses into one purpose-designed distribution centre.

Progress Rail: Australia’s First Battery Freight Loco

Progress Rail, a Caterpillar company, works out of the Redbank rail facility beside the estate. It builds and supports rolling stock, rail infrastructure and locomotive technology.

• Battery first: The project retrofits an existing Aurizon 4000-class diesel locomotive into the first Australian-built battery-powered freight unit.
• Retrofit model: Aurizon has more than 120 of the 4000-class locomotives, so a successful conversion could point to a faster way to cut freight rail emissions.
• Heavy-haul test: The locomotive is being designed for Australian heavy-haul freight conditions, with regenerative braking capturing energy when trains brake or travel downhill.

Other Major Operators

Redbank Motorway Estate is not just 6 big names.

The rest of the tenant list is where the estate starts to feel like a map of how goods move through Queensland.

DB Schenker

DB Schenker runs one of the estate’s major logistics hubs. Goodman lists the current Redbank facility at about 47,000 sqm, and earlier launch coverage said the site handled more than 5,200 container movements a year.

The local point: this is where imported goods, consumer products and bulk freight are received, stored, picked, packed and sent back out across Australia.

FedEx

FedEx operates from 48 Monash Road, Redbank. Goodman material describes the site as a regional head office and distribution centre with automated parcel sortation.

For the average Ipswich local, this is one of the invisible places behind fast parcel delivery.

L’Oreal

L’Oreal runs a 14,533 sqm Queensland distribution centre at Redbank Motorway Estate. The facility supports 30 beauty brands and helps move products to customers across the east coast.

The company called it a major Queensland investment, and it gives Redbank a very different type of tenant from the usual freight and grocery names.

CHEP

CHEP operates a purpose-built pallet repair service centre at Redbank. The facility opened in November 2023 and handles wooden pallets used across the national supply chain.

Goodman and CHEP material describe it as a highly automated pallet repair operation with solar, rainwater harvesting and EV charging.

Asahi

Asahi Beverages has confirmed a $150m Redbank distribution centre. It is planned to be fully operational by 2028 and will use a high-speed shuttle system and robotics.

The centre will consolidate Asahi’s Queensland warehousing for major drinks brands including Schweppes, Pepsi Max, Great Northern, VB, Hard Rated and Cool Ridge.

Lawrence & Hanson

Lawrence & Hanson is an electrical wholesaler with a Redbank fulfilment facility delivered with Goodman. Goodman says the site uses next-generation automation and increased Lawrence & Hanson’s inventory capacity by 500%.

This is the type of tenant most locals will never see, but electricians and trade customers feel it through faster stock movement.

Quantum Systems

Quantum Systems has a Redbank address at 107 Montgomery Street. The company works in unmanned aerial systems, mission software and defence-related technology.

It is small by mega-shed standards, but high-tech by output.

Tyres4U / Northline

Tyres4U is listed at 57 Monash Road, Redbank. Goodman material has also linked the site with Northline and Tyres4U warehousing.

This is the quieter tyre and transport layer of the estate: less famous than Coles or Australia Post, but still part of the machinery that keeps retail, freight and trade supply moving.

Visy

Visy is listed in Redbank Motorway Estate tenant material, with Visy Retail Services at 10 Morshead Court. Visy is a packaging and recycling group, which fits the estate’s freight-heavy tenant mix.

Where groceries, parcels, pallets and consumer goods move, packaging follows.

What Ipswich Gets

Ipswich needs more than new houses.

A growing city needs jobs land, investment, transport links, training pathways and big employers.

Redbank delivers all five.

• Jobs close to home: warehousing, trades, transport, automation, admin, defence.
• Private investment: big companies committing to Ipswich long term.
• Reputation: an industrial and logistics city, not just a commuter region.
• Supply chain weight: Queensland’s goods move through Ipswich every day.
• Future skills: automation and defence work need technical workers.

Automation doesn’t just cut manual jobs.

It creates work for technicians, electricians, fitters, engineers, maintenance crews and logistics planners.

Ipswich should chase those jobs hard.

Hidden Infrastructure

Big estates need years of civil works before anyone moves a pallet.

• Stage 1 alone: a $27m contract covering the Redbank Link Bridge, direct motorway access, more than 3km of road works, plus trunk power, water and sewer.
• Stage 2: bulk earthworks and two 2400mm stormwater lines, 16m underground, running out to the Brisbane River.

Humes says more than 200m of DN3000 stormwater pipe went in to handle runoff from all that roof and hardstand.

You can’t see any of it from the motorway.

The companies saw it before they signed.

The Trade-Offs

It’s still a major industrial estate. The costs are real:

• More trucks.
• Noise: reversing alarms and night activity, all hours.
• Light: big sites stay lit all night.
• Dust and construction as new stages roll out.
• Stormwater: huge roofs and sealed ground need constant management.

Council records show Moggill and Bellbowrie residents have complained about dust, noise, light, hooning and night-time operations.

Growth this big needs buffers, road design, stormwater controls and attention to neighbours.

Hidden In Plain Sight

Redbank brings Ipswich jobs, investment and supply chain weight.

It also brings trucks, noise and light.

Both are true.

If you want Ipswich to be more than a dormitory city, this is what that looks like.

Next time you drive past, you’ll still see sheds.

Now you know what’s inside.