St Lucia removalists, around the campus

St Lucia sits on a peninsula about 7.3 kilometres by road south-west of the Brisbane GPO. The University of Queensland's main campus takes up the eastern third of the suburb. Academic work began on the St Lucia site in 1946, and in 2023 the university had 55,424 students.

The university shapes the housing. At the 2021 Census, St Lucia's median age was 25, flats and apartments made up 59.6 per cent of occupied homes, and more than half of all homes (53.1 per cent) were rented. Separate houses were 33.0 per cent. The flatter northern side near the river is mainly medium to high density, including high-rise apartments on the riverfront, while the central and southern streets are mostly family houses. The St Lucia Golf Links take up the south-west corner.

That gives St Lucia three kinds of move: apartments, family homes, and small moves for students and staff. All three are charged at the same rate, $125 to $169 an hour + GST for a moving truck and two professional movers.

Most St Lucia homes are in apartment buildings, from riverfront towers to smaller blocks of units. The building decides how the day runs.

• Lifts and loading. Book the lift, the loading area and the permitted move time with building management. Ask whether lift padding is required.
• Basements. Basement car parks rarely clear a removalist truck. Tell us where the truck can stand and how far that is from the lift.
• Walk-ups. If there's no lift, count the flights at each end. Where a stair charge applies, it is $48 including GST per flight.
• Storage cages. Don't forget the basement storage cage or bike rack. Include their contents in your inventory and check access hours with management.

Our apartment removals work to your building's rules. You arrange the lift booking and any loading zone or permit; we plan the crew and the load around them.

If your move is timed around the academic year, plan ahead. UQ runs orientation every semester. UQ's O-Week runs in the week before Semester 1 classes begin, so check the university's academic calendar when you pick your date. Booking early gives you more choice of dates, and a little flexibility helps if you're waiting on a lease to start.

• Small loads. A bed, a desk and a few cartons don't need a full-house booking. See our furniture and small moves.
• Share houses. If housemates are moving from one address to different homes, each additional drop-off is $48 including GST. List every stop when you request a quote.
• End of lease. Queensland's Residential Tenancies Authority says tenants should remove their belongings and clean before completing the Exit condition report (Form 14a), which is compared with the entry report when the bond is decided. Leave time for both after the truck leaves.
• Things you're not taking. Old mattresses, bed frames and broken furniture can go with our junk removal service, charged on time plus disposal by weight and type, with a minimum disposal charge of $95 including GST.

Away from the river flats, St Lucia's central and southern streets are mostly family homes. Council's heritage register lists 93 Ryans Road, a two-storey Interwar Tudor-style house with half-timbered upper walls and leadlight windows, as a reminder of St Lucia's interwar growth as a neighbourhood for professional families. Queensland Places notes that, after the Second World War, members of the university community built innovative modern houses here too.

Homes like these often include a working study. Books, files and desk equipment are heavy for their size and easy to underestimate.

• List the study separately. Note bookcases, filing cabinets and the number of book cartons. Smaller cartons keep books liftable.
• Work equipment. We move desks, chairs, monitors and boxed equipment. IT and network setup is outside our service, so plan to reconnect it yourself or book a technician.
• Confidential files. Seal and label them, or carry them yourself.
• Fragile collections. Our packing service can take care of glassware, ceramics and framed pieces while you pack the rest.

The river crossing most people link with St Lucia doesn't take trucks. The Eleanor Schonell Bridge, opened in 2006 between the UQ campus and Dutton Park, carries only buses, pedestrians and bicycles. A truck moving you between St Lucia and the southside, or across to West End, takes another crossing, so the drive is longer than the distance suggests. The suburb has no train station, though CityCat terminals at Guyatt Park and the University of Queensland serve the riverside.

• Main roads. Sir Fred Schonell Drive, Swann Road and The Esplanade are the main thoroughfares. For a big load, a start outside the morning peak usually makes better use of the hours.
• Campus moves. Moving an office or department furniture on campus means working within the university's own access and parking rules. Get authorisation and the exact loading point from your department before the day. See our office removals.
• Next door. Taringa and Indooroopilly are short runs west.

The same hourly rate applies to a studio and a five-bedroom house. Smaller loads simply take fewer hours.

• $125 to $169 per hour + GST for a moving truck and two professional movers.
• Included: quilted blankets and furniture pads, dollies and hand trolleys, ratchet straps, stretch wrap, bubble wrap and dish paper on request, and basic dismantling and reassembly.
• $48 incl. GST each, where they apply: stairs per flight, appliances, items over 90 kg, an extra pick-up or drop-off, an extra trip, a truck-inaccessible driveway and hoisting.
• Pianos: $149 incl. GST on top of the hourly rate, subject to an access assessment.
• Travel: charged depot-to-depot or as a call-out fee and confirmed before you book. Parking and permit costs are passed on.

A deposit secures your date, and we ask for 48 hours' notice to cancel or reschedule. Details are on our pricing page. Request a quote with both addresses, the lift or stairs at each end and every stop along the way. Our team aims to call new enquiries back within five minutes during business hours.