Parcels needing to go to nearby suburbs are going on odd routes around the country despite a new $240-million automated distribution centre recently opening near Brisbane.

Key points: Parcels needing to be delivered within Queensland are going via NSW and Victoria

Parcels needing to be delivered within Queensland are going via NSW and Victoria Some businesses have seen parcels take more than two weeks to be delivered to nearby suburbs

Some businesses have seen parcels take more than two weeks to be delivered to nearby suburbs A new automated facility west of Brisbane has so far not increased delivery times

Business owners and residents are dismayed about the length of time the parcels are taking to be delivered with many items going backwards and forwards between states.

The new Australia Post facility at Redbank is equipped with technology that includes parcel pickers, automated guided vehicles, and robotics.

Owner of Queensland Textbook Warehouse Will Muskens said he had to chase Australia Post to get his parcels where they needed to go since the facility opened.

"We had two large boxes of books weighing about 37kgs to a training company that has students in Weipa doing a mechanics workshop," he told ABC Radio Brisbane's Steve Austin.

"They needed them by this Friday as students were travelling from Cape York to study."

He said he was assured by Australia Post that if posted by Monday, October 21, the parcels would arrive with "no problems at all".

"We dispatched them on the Monday afternoon, but had trouble with the website and eventually got it sorted. Yet I still had to chase the driver up the road to get the boxes to him," Mr Muskens said.

"We thought we were done and dusted, but when we went online to track the parcel nothing had happened. We checked each day until Friday and there was nothing but an acknowledgement of the receipt of the boxes."

Manually clearing the backlog

Having no luck, Mr Muskens called his local regional business centre and was told that the warehouse in Redbank had gone into meltdown.

"Apparently all the parcels that were delivered to Redbank were accumulating in the warehouse and couldn't be shifted," he said.

Deliveries are taking weeks to arrive at nearby suburbs. ( ABC News: Nic MacBean )

"It took to the following Thursday for anything to happen, Australia Post sent a team of workers in to do it manually to clear the backlog.

"I was quite astonished as that would have been thousands of parcels not going anywhere for more than a week."

"I've dealt with Australia Post for 18 years and nine times out of 10 it gets there on time, but I can't believe there's such a backlog of parcels not going anywhere."

Australia Post issued ABC Radio Brisbane with a statement:

Operations at our new Brisbane Parcel Facility are running as normal and last week we processed 1.25 million parcels. Following vigorous testing and training we've been increasing operations and in a single day we processed 250,000 parcels. This is the biggest parcel facility of its kind in the southern hemisphere and we're ready for unprecedented parcel numbers as we move closer to a record Christmas.

An Australia Post spokesperson said Mr Muskens' parcel was scanned in at Cairns this morning, and confirmed the items would be delivered by the end of the week.

Going between states before being delivered next door

Listeners to ABC Radio Brisbane shared similar stories of their parcels traipsing around the country before arriving at their post box.

Recently I had a small parcel under 500 grams posted to me from Noosa at 10:15am on Wednesday. It didn't reach me till 3:30pm the following Monday. I could have driven up and back in three hours. — Peter, Clayfield

I sent a box from Inala to Bowen Hills and it went via NSW and took two weeks. — Vanessa, Brisbane

My package from Sydney has been 'on board for delivery today' since Thursday, checked again and it still says, 'You should receive it today'. It was last seen at Stafford. - Brigid, Spring Hill