Australian standard pallets are square softwood or hardwood pallets that are standard in Australia and non-standard anywhere else in the world. They are 1165 × 1165 mm in size and fit exactly in the RACE container of the Australian railways. They are ill-suited for the standard and ISO shipping containers used around the globe. Construction and specification Australian standard pallets are defined by Australian Standard AS:4068-1993 Flat pallets for materials handling. They can be manufactured in hardwood or softwood, where hardwood is good for durability, weather tolerance and very heavy loads of over 2 tonne. 1165 × 1165 mm softwood pallets can also be manufactured using lighter timber suitable for use as a lightweight pallet using 19mm boards (up to 1 tonne) or 25mm boards (up to 2 tonne). Australian standard pallets are extensively used in Australian storage and warehousing as racking pallets because they can be removed from transport directly onto warehouse racking for storage. The majority of Australian business will use a softwood pallet. Pricing ranges from $15.00 AU to $19.00 AU (2019) for a softwood standard size pallet, based on quantities. Use The Australian standard pallet is designed for use with the RACE container of Australian railways. Originally the pallet was specified at 46 × 46 inches (from a nominal size of 48 × 48 inches, or 4 ft × 4 ft), but this has been metricated to the marginally smaller 1165 × 1165 mm dimensions. Two pallets will fit closely side by side in a RACE container. They can be stacked on two levels and one container can thus hold 20 pallets. A standard railway wagon carries three containers and can thus hold 60 pallets. Two-thirds of palletized transport within Australia uses the 1165 × 1165 standard pallet. For external use, where goods are to be shipped in ISO containers, an 1100 × 1100 mm pallet is used. This is a pallet size widely used by Japan and Korea, but is also specified in the Australian standard for pallets. History Australia was one of the first countries to develop a standard pallet. During World War II the United States, as part of their logistics effort, used palletized transport on a scale never before seen. This especially impressed the Australians who were still mostly handling goods by manual effort. When the war ended, the Americans left behind their materials handling equipment and a very large stock of