Australia Post Announces Parcel Delivery Deadlines for Christmas 2021

Australia Post is expecting this year to be its busiest-ever festive season as it announces delivery deadlines for the 2021 Christmas season.

With parcel volume already setting records this year, Australia Post predicts to top last year’s December record volume of 52 million parcels delivered. Therefore, the Post Office encourages its customers to send their Christmas presents and holiday cards as soon as possible in order to ensure delivery by December 24.

For 2021, the recommended domestic cut-off dates for parcels are:

Sending from anywhere in Australia (except WA and NT):

• Parcel Post: 13 December
• Express Post: 20 December

Sending from WA and NT:

• Parcel Post: 5 December
• Express Post: 15 December

“We’re seeing record parcel volumes with more than 5.9 million households shopping online a month – that’s more than half of all Australian households, and it’s showing no signs of slowing as we head into the online sales season and Christmas. That is why we’ve planned ahead with extra air freight capacity, weekend deliveries, and recruitment of thousands of new team members to ramp up our delivery services, parcel sorting, and customer care, and we’ll be delivering right up until Christmas Eve.”

Gary Starr, Australia Post Executive General Manager, Business and Government

In addition to these parcel deadlines, Australia Post also recommends Christmas cards and letters should be sent by Thursday, December 16.

Australia Post International Deadlines

For international air parcels, including Express service, Australia Post recommends shipping parcels within the next few weeks as most country deadlines are mid-November.

Only to New Zealand and a few select other countries are Express deadlines last November and the first week of December.

The challenge with international shipments is that transport availability and restrictions are constantly changing, including new customs clearance changes in Europe, which can easily delay parcels.

Australia Post maintains a page for international advisories here. The page includes information about international service suspensions and a link to a country-by-country list of estimated cut-off times for holiday shipments.

Customers can also contact their local post office for more details on international shipping deadlines and restrictions.

Lastly, Australia Post said that its app is the best way to keep track of shipments, select where to receive parcels, and stay informed about impacts to its domestic network. The app is available for IOS and Android can be downloaded for free from this page.

Richard Meldner

Richard is co-founder of eSeller365. He has over 17 years of experience on eBay which includes tens of thousands of sales to buyers in over 100 countries and even has experience with eBay’s VeRO program enforcing intellectual property rights for a former employer. And for about two years Richard sold products on Amazon using Amazon FBA in the US.

To “relax” from the daily business grind, for a few weekends a year, he also works for IMSA as a professional race official.