Australia Post parcel's 30,000km journey up and down coast: 'More well-travelled than I am'

Waiting on a delivery from Australia Post? If this parcel's 30,000km journey is anything to go by, you might be waiting a while.

"My parcel's now more well-travelled than I am," an expectant recipient posted to Reddit, along with a photo of the package's remarkably arduous trip. "What is the point of sending it back and fourth between Brisbane and Melbourne 50 times?"

The tracking info for the parcel contains no less than 80 entries, as it bounces endlessly from one state to another. One day it's being processed in Victoria to be sent to Queensland, two days later it has arrived in Queensland and is about to be sent back to Victoria (via NSW, no less).

It's not over yet though. The parcel, first sorted at Sunshine West in Victoria on March 24, has at least another two months of travelling to go: back and forth between sorting facilities, travelling between Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, and back again, dozens of times, with the odd diversion to regional sorting facilities in Parkes and Chullora, both in NSW, to punctuate the journey.

'Start placing bets'

"Do you really need the parcel? I'm just asking because I would love to see how long this goes on for. Please consider that before you lodge a complaint and actually get it sorted. We could start placing bets too," one Reddit user asked. "Maybe OP ordered a boomerang," a second Redditor mused.

"Gonna need to plant a few more trees to offset that," another user joked, referencing Australia Post's carbon neutral delivery network.

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"The reason this happens is the automated sorting equipment," someone else claimed. "It reads the sender as the recipient and directs the package back to where it came from. [AusPost] is supposed to detect a stuck package like this and get a human to pull it out for manual processing, but it doesn't always happen. In such a case you need to lodge an enquiry to force a human to intercept it."

The parcel was last seen back at Australia Post's Sunshine West sorting facility in Victoria on June 5. It's not clear whether it will be be returned to the sender from there, or if this is just but another mystery stop on its truly remarkable journey.

Australia Post responds

Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, a spokesperson for AusPost apologised to the customer and said they take great pride in their delivery record. "Australia Post takes pride in its delivery record and sincerely apologises if something has gone wrong in this case," the spokesperson said.

"Customers do play an important part in helping their parcels move through our network, first and foremost by making sure addresses are written clearly with clear distinction between delivery and sender addresses. If using recycled packaging, it’s extremely important to remove any old barcodes or labels, and to secure loose tape.

"We also recommend customers wanting to wrap their parcels in plastic to check with their local post office, since certain types of plastic wrap can cause issues with our scanners. We encourage any customers experiencing these kinds of issues to get in touch with us directly by calling 13 POST (13 7678)."

To avoid any issues, AusPost also encourages all customers to check the sending guidelines available on their website, noting there are declaration requirements for certain types of goods.

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