Amazon to Build Largest Robotic Warehouse in Australia

Amazon has announced its plans to build a robotic warehouse in Melbourne, Australia – marking the largest facility of its kind in the country.

The 685,000-square-foot fulfillment center will be constructed in the suburb of Craigieburn in Northern Melbourne and will reportedly feature a fleet of robot workers set to work alongside human staff members and automate order fulfillment tasks.

The project will cost a reported $8.4 billion to build and is expected to be operational by 2025. 

It marks Amazon’s seventh fulfillment center in Australia, as well as its largest.

“Australia is a very important market for Amazon and we're really buoyed by the consumer reaction to our offer,” said Janet Menzies, Amazon Australia’s country chief executive. “Just very excited about the opportunity this will create for new jobs.”

Previously, the largest Amazon fulfillment center was its facility in Western Sydney, which was completed at the end of 2021, spanning 656,000 square feet.

“The opening of this site will double our operational footprint in Australia while creating more than 1,500 local jobs in Western Sydney,” said Craig Fuller, Amazon Australia’s director of operations at the Sydney site’s opening. “The introduction of robotics enables us to exponentially increase our capacity for storing inventory, providing additional opportunities for the thousands of small- and medium-sized Australian businesses we support while increasing product selection and improving delivery speed for our customers around the country.”

Related:Amazon Creates Human-Robot Simulation Platform