Dangerous goods

Safety regulations prohibit many substances from being posted. These include explosive, highly flammable, radioactive, or dangerous articles.

Certain items may be carried in parcels only if they meet certain conditions and are packed in a specific manner.

If you have any doubts about a particular item you wish to send, please consult the Dangerous and Prohibited Goods & Packaging Post Guide (pdf 3.08mb) for more information.

Lithium batteries

All lithium batteries are now classified as dangerous goods and cannot be carried by air.

Australia Post cannot accept lithium batteries or devices containing lithium batteries for mailing overseas or for domestic air carriage. Parcels containing these items will now only be transported within Australia and by road only.

To help you understand the changes we have developed guidelines which set out the requirements that must be met when posting lithium batteries or items containing them, including watches, clocks, mobile phones and MP3 players.

For more information refer to our customer guidelines for sending lithium batteries (pdf 48kb).

Dangerous goods exemptions

Our policy does permit very small quantities of some dangerous goods referred to as 'exempted' dangerous goods, when carried on an individual contract basis and by surface transport only.

Australia Post standard Terms and Conditions (T&C) outline those articles specifically permitted in Part D - Prohibited Goods, Clause 62 through 66 inclusive.

If you have goods of this nature which you wish to transport in the postal stream and you want to enter into a parcels contract which allows this, please speak to your Australia Post Account Manager.