Robots not taking over, human touch still needed

About 500 employees will be stationed at the new Australia Post facility.

The Redbank Australia Post facility will open in October. Picture: Cordell Richardson

THERE'S nothing to fear, the robots are not taking over. Not completely anyway.

About 500 employees will be stationed at Australia Post's new Redbank facility when it opens in October.

It will be in operation just in time for Australia Post's busy pre-Christmas period, which reached a new high last year.

Over 40 million parcels were delivered nationally in December alone, including a record three million in a single day.

The corporation are expecting that to be easily surpassed this year.

Just two nights ago and well outside of the peak period, one million parcels were delivered.

Australia Post's group chief executive officer and managing director Christine Holgate said she was excited by the state-of-the-art technology housed in the massive distribution centre but a human touch would still very much be needed.

"People often think someone like Australia Post is going to be afraid of automation but we're not," she said.

"We really welcome it.

"It really enables us to have a broader group of the population to work here (including) older workers and more women can work here.

"It gives us a bigger talent tool. The facility will be working completely different hours (to other similar facilities) and new shifts which will enable customers to do deliveries faster and... allow businesses to access a broader market."