Australia Post restarts international sea mail ahead of Christmas

Australia Post has restarted inbound international sea mail from today, seven weeks after the suspension was first put in place.

The postal service had put a pause on all mail arriving by sea due, to an increase in prohibited items making their way onto Australian shores.

The pause on sea mail began in October with hopes it would ease the backlog ahead of Christmas.

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Here you can see the Christmas deadline for international and domestic deliveries.

The service does take longer than by plane, but it gives a significantly cheaper option for people hoping to send large amounts of goods.

While Airmail can be scanned through X-Ray machines, Australia's Border Force need to manually search all Sea mail, further adding to the backlog.

"We know that the temporary suspension inconvenienced some of our overseas and local customers and have worked tirelessly to restart the service," Australia Post said in a statement.

"We are confident that our collaborative efforts between Australia Post, our border agencies and international partners will reduce the amount of prohibited items coming into Australia."

In October, Australia post were still grappling with the "increase in sea mail volume that was a direct result of Covid air restrictions and decreased aircraft capacity".