Welcome to Australia Post’s HQ. Just don’t call it the HQ

Gone too are the sky-high rents that a prime spot commands in the city’s east end, just a block from Parliament.

Welcome instead to Australia Post’s newly built digs on busy Swan Street in Burnley, where the tram rattles past on one side of the building and there is direct access to the train station on the other. And whatever you do, don’t call it the postal service’s “headquarters”. The correct term is “support office”.

That no-frills nomenclature is symbolic of a dramatic overhaul of the organisation’s strategy as it rejigs its mission – and looks to stem a $200 million annual loss last year – led by chief executive Paul Graham, a global logistics veteran. The move to Swan Street will not only save millions of dollars on rent, it also places the national carrier squarely back in its suburban context.

“A large part of the proposition of this building is getting us out of the city and back to the suburbs and for us to feel connected to the community,” says Australia Post’s executive general manager for enterprise services, Michael McNamara, one of the key executives involved in the move.

The homely tone is set as soon as one steps into the foyer at 480 Swan Street, which is fitted out with comfy green leather bench seats. Ahead there is a wall of exposed brick – many of them reused from the previous building on the site, which was demolished – and another wall of plain concrete.

And the vibe gets only stronger in Australia Post’s own space in the floors above. They are all open plan – even Graham takes up his position among the other workstations when he is in Melbourne – and overhead are exposed services rather than the traditional enclosed ceiling.

The space has a distinctly gritty, industrial feel to it, which is deliberate. Hassell, which led the design team, have dubbed the building’s aesthetic – which features lots of natural and recycled materials – as the “homely warehouse” look.

Sturdy sets of stairs link the floors internally, their bold yellow safety stripes maintaining the factory feel, more akin to a delivery centre than a swish corporate setting.

“A large proportion of what we wanted to achieve here with this building was the connection to the frontline worker,” says McNamara on a recent tour through the building with The Australian Financial Review.

There’s plenty of room for the homey industrial atmosphere to play out in the generous, 3000-square-metre floors. Punctuating the space are break-out booths set up to resemble parcels on conveyor belt. They are lined inside and out with 6-millimetre thick cork roll, typically used for flooring.

And there are walk-in spaces, fully sound-proofed. On the outside they are encased in a timber plywood. McNamara pauses to point out the screws. It’s no oversight they are left exposed.

“The look and feel is an industrial vibe which makes it feel like a delivery centre,” he says. “We’re presenting our staff with a building that feels more like the frontline.”

But the low-tech look of the Australia Post office space is also home to some very high-tech gear. It helps with disability access as well. A digital way-finding system, BindiMaps, is in use, while large meeting rooms – their walls compose of engineered wood panels – incorporate the latest in hearing augmentation – the Roger system wirelessly transmits throughout the space to those who need it.

“Tech was everything. It had to be cutting edge, super slick and a good experience for people when they come in,” McNamara says.

“We are modernising Australia Post, we are digitising Australia Post. The tech piece is large part of the transformation agenda.”

Each of the eight floors is themed after a different state or territory, with break-out rooms named after local postcodes and art from regional artists.

In all there are 1800 desks – and more places counting break-out space – for a staff of about 3000. They are expected to be in the office three days a week. The Calven mobile app organises workstations over the week, ensuring also that staff are seated next to different co-workers within their teams on different days.

Staff may well be sitting in a refurbished chair, one of 1800 brought from the former Bourke Street head office. In all, more than 4500 furniture items were refurbished, recycled or repurposed, saving about $2.6 million and almost 30,000 kilograms of landfill.

Behind Australia Post’s big move is ASX-listed fund manager and developer Charter Hall, which worked with the organisation to identify the site, as it looked to ditch its fancy CBD headquarters and return to the suburbs.

The tenancy is a big win for Charter Hall, with Australia Post taking up eight levels, or 24,000 square metres, of the 32,000-square-metre building. Other tenants included builder McConnell Dowell, STH Architects and Energy Bay. Only one floor is left to lease.

And with eyes wide open, Charter Hall subsequently bought into the Bourke Street tower that Australia Post vacated this year. It is at the prized east end of the city where space will be most sought when the market recovers. Charter Hall is already busy with a revamp there.

Carmel Hourigan, who heads Charter Hall’s office property business, doesn’t see Australia Post leading an exodus of corporate names from the CBD to the city fringe.

Yes, there is a distinct tech vibe emerging in the nearby Cremorne precinct, where corporates including Seek, Tesla, MYOB and Disney have taken up residence.

But for Australia Post, whose new home stands out boldly on corner with Burnley Street, it is all about getting back to its suburban roots, according to Ms Hourigan.

“It makes total sense for Australia Post to move here,” she tells the Financial Review.