Shipping and Price Changes
Shipping — Why We've Made Changes & The Honest Story Behind Them
We want to be completely upfront with you about some important changes to our shipping structure, and more importantly, why we've had to make them.
Running Soil Dynamics from our farm in Osmington, Western Australia. We started this business because we genuinely believe in feeding the soil, not just the plant. We're organic agronomists, not accountants. But running a small business means the numbers matter — and lately, they've been telling us we need to make some changes.
What's changed — and why
We know we communicated changes back in April 2026 — and we held the new rates as long as we possibly could. Unfortunately costs have continued to rise across every part of what we do:
- Raw materials — the organic inputs in every product have risen by up to 8%
- Packaging — our buckets, bottles and containers have all increased in cost
- Fuel surcharges — carrier fuel surcharges went from 4.8% earlier this year to 12% in April, and now 19.5% from June 2026 — nearly quadrupling in twelve months
- Pick and pack — our 3PL fulfilment costs have increased as our volumes have grown
- Advertising and overheads — like every small business, our costs haven't stood still
But the single biggest change — and the one most people would never know about — is the introduction of StarTrack manual handling and heavy lift fees.
The charge you've never heard of — but we pay on every order
StarTrack (our courier for heavier shipments) now charges a mandatory manual handling fee of $15.40 per article for anything containing liquids, packed in buckets or containers, or weighing over 20kg.
Why? Because our products — by their very nature — cannot go through automated conveyor systems at courier depots. Every bottle, every bucket, every bag-in-box has to be physically handled by a person. That cost is passed directly to us, and it applies to every individual item in your order.
So when you order a bundle, it's not one handling fee — it's one per article:
| Bundle | Articles | Manual handling charge |
|---|---|---|
| Starter Kit Small | 4 articles | $46.20 |
| Foundation Bundle Small | 4 articles | $61.60 |
| Foundation Bundle Medium | 5 articles | $79.50 |
| Foundation Bundle Large | 5 articles | $79.50 |
| The Lot Bundle Medium | 6 articles | $92.40 |
That's before a single kilometre of freight has been covered.
Real orders. Real costs. Not averages.
The following three examples are taken directly from actual orders on our GetQuickmail freight invoices — INV52532 (April 2026) and INV52815 (June–July 2026). These are not estimates or averages across our order history. They are the exact dollar amounts from three real orders placed by real customers.
We've removed customer names for privacy, but everything else is precisely as it appeared on our invoice.
Real Order 1 — April 2026, Kangaroo Valley NSW (Rural)
| Cost component | Exact amount |
|---|---|
| Courier freight (Perth → Kangaroo Valley NSW) | $105.51 |
| StarTrack manual handling | $30.80 |
| Heavy item pick (warehouse) | $2.50 |
| Pick & pack | $3.70 |
| Total cost to us | $142.51 |
| What the customer paid (old flat rate) | ~$40.00 |
| What we absorbed on this single order | ~$102.51 |
Real Order 2 — June 2026, Mornington VIC (Regional)
| Cost component | Exact amount |
|---|---|
| Courier freight (Perth → Mornington VIC) | $298.31 |
| StarTrack manual handling (6 articles × $15.40) | $92.40 |
| Heavy item pick (warehouse) | $20.00 |
| Pick & pack | $3.70 |
| Total cost to us | $414.41 |
| What the customer paid (old flat rate) | ~$85.00 |
| What we absorbed on this single order | ~$329.41 |
Real Order 3 — July 2026, Trafalgar South VIC (Rural)
| Cost component | Exact amount |
|---|---|
| Courier freight (Perth → Trafalgar South VIC) | $230.23 |
| StarTrack manual handling | $66.00 |
| Heavy item pick (warehouse) | $10.00 |
| Pick & pack | $3.70 |
| Total cost to us | $309.93 |
| What the customer paid (old flat rate) | ~$80.00 |
| What we absorbed on this single order | ~$229.93 |
These three orders alone cost us $866.85 in fulfilment. We recovered approximately $205 from the customers. We absorbed $661.85.
This is not a business decision — it's a mathematical reality we simply cannot continue.
"But surely you make enough on the product itself?"
We completely understand why you'd ask that. And we want to be honest about this too.
Like most small organic food and agriculture businesses, our gross product margin covers raw materials, production, organic certification, quality testing, storage and labour. What's left after that sounds reasonable — until you subtract freight subsidisation, fulfilment fees, payment processing, advertising, website costs, insurance, compliance and our own time.
By the time all costs are accounted for, our net margin on most orders — even before these changes — was in the low single digits. On rural east coast orders in particular, some months we made nothing at all.
We're sharing this not to ask for sympathy, but because we think you deserve to know the full picture. We're not a large corporation with the buying power to negotiate better freight rates or absorb losses across thousands of product lines. We're two people, one farm, and a genuine belief that what we're making is good for the soil.
What we were charging before — and why it wasn't sustainable
Our old shipping structure used flat rates that hadn't been properly reviewed:
| Product | Old east coast rate | What freight actually costs us |
|---|---|---|
| 1lt bottle | $5.00 | ~$28–$32 |
| 4lt bottle | $7.00 | ~$42–$55 |
| 5kg bucket | $7.00 | ~$56 incl. handling |
| Starter Kit Small | $27.50 | ~$99–$117 incl. handling |
| Foundation Bundle Medium | $80.00 | ~$210–$313 incl. handling |
| The Lot Bundle Medium | $85.00 | ~$259–$301 incl. handling |
The old $5 flat rate on a 1lt bottle to Sydney covered less than 18% of the actual freight cost. With fuel surcharges nearly quadrupling and mandatory handling charges now layered on top, the gap became impossible to sustain.
Our current shipping rates
Rates are calculated at checkout based on your postcode and the total weight of your order.
WA customers
| Order weight | Rate |
|---|---|
| 0–4.5kg | $9.95 |
| 4.5–8kg | $14.95 |
| 8–20kg | $19.95 |
| 20–40kg | $29.95 |
| 40–100kg | $39.95 |
| Over 100kg | $59.95 |
✓ Free shipping on WA orders over $275
East Coast Metro
Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane CBD, Adelaide, Canberra
| Order weight | Rate |
|---|---|
| 0–4.5kg | $19.95 |
| 4.5–8kg | $24.95 |
| 8–20kg | $34.95 |
| 20–40kg | $49.95 |
| 40–100kg | $69.95 |
| Over 100kg | $99.95 |
✓ Free shipping on metro orders over $300
Interstate & Rural Delivery
Regional NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, WA regional, TAS and NT
| Order weight | Rate |
|---|---|
| 0–4.5kg | $24.95 |
| 4.5–8kg | $29.95 |
| 8–20kg | $44.95 |
| 20–40kg | $59.95 |
| 40–100kg | $89.95 |
| Over 100kg | $129.95 |
Unfortunately, at this stage there will be no free freight for rural delivery. Even at these rates, we're still absorbing the majority of the true cost on most orders. Please note that we are looking at how we can do this better, but it will take some time, as it would mean possible reworking of the sizing structure of our products and looking at a 3pl platform over east once we gain more momentum, as a lot of these 3Pl's are based on order throughput per month before they look at taking you on.
Estimated delivery times
| Zone | Estimated delivery |
|---|---|
| Perth Metro | 2–5 business days |
| WA Regional | 3–8 business days |
| East Coast Metro | 5–10 business days |
| East Coast Regional / Rural | 7–14 business days |
| NT & Remote | 10–21 business days |
A personal note
We know this is a lot to read. We've sat with these numbers for months before acting on them, and we haven't made these changes lightly.
What we can promise is this — every dollar you spend with Soil Dynamics goes into making the best organic soil biology products we possibly can. We are not a large corporation. We're two people who care deeply about soil health and about building something that lasts.
These changes are what allow us to keep doing this work. We genuinely appreciate every single one of you — whether you're in Perth or Toowoomba, Hobart or Darwin — and we're committed to keeping our products as accessible as possible while being honest about what it costs to get them to you.
Thank you for your understanding and your continued support.
Tini & Anthony Quinlan Soil Dynamics, Osmington WA hello@soildynamics.com.au
Shipping rates effective 26 July 2026. Reviewed periodically as carrier and input costs change.
