Key takeaways
- Covering 150,000 square meters, the site will be one of the largest warehouses ever built in Queensland.
- State-of-the-art robots will work alongside employees, handling heavy lifting and repetitive tasks.
- The new fulfillment center will create more than 1,000 local jobs once fully operational.
Amazon Australia has unveiled plans to invest more than AU$750 million building a new robotics fulfillment center capable of processing over 125 million packages per year.
Targeted for completion in 2028, the site in Brisbane, Queensland will cover 150,000 square meters across four levels—with a floor size equivalent to 120 Olympic swimming pools.
Set to become one of the largest warehouses ever built in Queensland, the new fulfillment center will have the capacity to house up to 15 million of the smaller items sold on Amazon.com.au such as pantry staples, beauty products, electronics and toys. When operating at full capacity, the site will have the ability to process over 125 million packages per year, including items from Queensland-based small and medium businesses who use Amazon to reach customers across Australia.
An architectural rendering of Amazon's robotics fulfillment center being built in Brisbane, Australia.
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It will create more than 1,000 local jobs once fully operational, while the construction and fit out of the facility will create an additional 2,000 jobs.
“People are at the heart of our operations, and by combining innovative robotics technology with skilled local talent in this state-of-the-art site, we’re building a workplace where people and technology work hand in hand to deliver for our customers,” said Wayne Angus, Amazon Australia’s Director of Operations. “This investment demonstrates Amazon’s commitment to Queensland customers and our confidence in the state’s growing economy.”
Amazon has invested for many years to improve the employee experience, and some of our best innovations are assistive technologies that help employees by handling repetitive tasks so people can focus on work that requires human judgement and skill.
Hercules units moving pods containing inventory around one of Amazon's robotics fulfillment center.Hercules, for example, is a small but mighty member of our robotic fleet. It moves through our robotic fulfillment centers to pick up shelves of products and deliver them to employees at ergonomic workstations. Each shelf can weigh up to 500kg—an easy lift for these machines – eliminating the need for employees to perform heavy lifting or walk long distances.
Hercules also has a forward-facing 3D camera to help it make safe decisions quickly—including what to do if the electricity goes out—and it can identify the location of humans who wear Wi-Fi transmitters called Tech Vests. Thousands of these vests have been activated in fulfillment centers around the world to keep employees safe.
Sparrow, a robotic system that can detect, select, and handle individual products in our inventory.Sparrow, another of our robots working across our operations, supports employees who group together items for customer orders. This robotic arm picks up and moves individual items from containers into specific totes to send off to employees before they’re packaged.
Sparrow uses computer vision and AI to identify the correct item and add it to the tote on its delivery journey.
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