RE: The Australia Post Experience
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Be careful what you are whishing for!
Here in Germany we have DHL as the "federal parcel service" as they have a cooperation with Deutsche Post, the federal letter service. They are not too bad, though cases like what you describe can happen at times. But rarely.
But then we have the "luxury" of several other logistics companies: Amazon, Hermes, UPS, FedEx, DPD and more. Amazon does only do Amazon parcels and works pretty good. UPS and FedEx work also well, but are hellish expensive. But companies like DPD (Deitscher Paket Dienst) are total failures. They are something like the Bermuda triangle for mail. And they lie straight at your face if you ask them where your stuff is. "You were not at home when we tried to deliver", "We couldn't find your house", "We try again tomorrow", or what ever else they may make up if you ask them whats going on. In truth one of their drivers or other staff just stole you parcel, since it contained something he fancied. But its kind of understandable - they only employ migrants for minimum wage.
In a country like Australia it must be difficult to transport mail cost effectively. How long does it normally take to send a parcel from the east coast to the west coast? And what does it cost?
National postage is fixed by weight, for the most part. Remote postcodes that are accessible only by barge or long haul trucks typically have their stuff come in through other logistical means, like in with the food delivery, or sometimes in the cargo hold of a visiting flying doctor.
It is probably a nightmare for those edge cases, but most Australians live in the major cities.
But then, theres places like the housing estate that I live in. Its a five minute drive to the local post office, yet people a few streets away dont get their mail delivered, and need a Post Office Box.
The local post office has no spare PO Boxes... as far as I am aware.. so uh... yeah.
Yeah, I imagin there is no way to charge a realistic price for sending a parcel to some remote place in the outback. That would cost AU$ 200 or something. But I guess people who live there are used to difficulties. I really cant imagine to live in such a place. Sure, it gives you more freedom in some ways, but a bit of civilisation is not so bad as well. :)
Well, for the $40 or so it cost to send this parcel which would be four hours in the air - I think about ~1900-2500KM, it travelled over 5000KM (by ROAD!) and still didn't get to its destination! :D
And as to what it costs, too much. But probably not enough to be sustainable.