Amazon Australia is on track to open the largest fulfilment centre in the southern hemisphere by the end of this year.

The $500 million robotics-automated facility at the Goodman industrial estate in Sydney’s west is the size of 24 football fields.

Covering 200,000 sqm over four levels, the new centre will employ 1500 warehouse staff.

The facility will house up to 11 million items and will be equipped with the most advanced Amazon robotics technology – including autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and pick and place robots.

Robots will work collaboratively with employees by moving the pods of inventory to them, reducing the time and effort that would otherwise be required for the employee to stow items for sale or pick them for new customer orders.

They also save space, allowing for 50 per cent more items to be stowed per square metre which in turn allows for increased product selection.

Fit out of the site began this week, including the installation of the main conveyer belt and robotics equipment.

Amazon Australia director of operation, Craig Fuller said the new centre is modelled on Amazon fulfilment centres in Europe.

“We took this template from a European model. But we had to make a couple of bespoke changes to reflect some of the logistics aspects that are adapted to Australian conditions,” Mr Fuller said.

This will be Amazon’s fifth fulfilment centre in Australia and will service metropolitan Sydney, the NSW central coast and up to Brisbane.

Goodman is the largest landlord for Amazon globally.

Other major Australian sites include Moorebank in Sydney and Lytton, Brisbane. 

Amazon launched in Australia in December 2017.