MicroRentals rents IT and audio-visual equipment to Townsville businesses from a fleet we own outright — over 2,000 laptops plus desktops, servers, displays and event technology. On-site work in Townsville is handled by our Townsville-based technicians, not by someone flown up from Brisbane. We have been renting business equipment since 1987.
North Queensland is usually served from somewhere else
The standing arrangement for most Townsville businesses is that their IT supplier is in Brisbane, or Sydney, and the relationship is entirely remote until something is broken enough to justify a flight. You know how that goes: the ticket gets logged, the response is a remote session, and if it needs hands the answer is next week.
We work differently here on two fronts. The equipment is owned by us rather than ordered in, so availability is real. And the people who attend on site in Townsville are based in Townsville, which is the part most national suppliers cannot match without pretending.
We own the equipment
Our fleet — over 2,000 laptops, plus desktops, workstations, servers, monitors, large-format displays and event technology — sits in our own warehouse. When you ring about fifteen laptops for an intake, we are checking a shelf rather than checking with a distributor. That distinction matters more the further you are from a capital city, because a distributor shortage that is an inconvenience in Sydney is a fortnight in Townsville.
Being straight about freight
The warehouse is in Sydney. Townsville is a long way from it, and pretending otherwise would help nobody.
What we commit to is dispatch: stocked configurations leave within 24 hours. Final delivery is by third-party carrier, and that leg is theirs. We give you their estimate when you order and we do not promise a date we do not control. Custom imaging adds around three days before dispatch.
North Queensland freight also has a weather dimension that southern suppliers routinely forget. During the wet season, road and air freight into the north can be disrupted with very little notice. We will factor that into what we tell you rather than discovering it with you.
What we rent
Computers. Business laptops (Lenovo ThinkPad, Dell, HP, Microsoft Surface, Acer, Asus), MacBooks and Apple Mac desktops, desktop PCs and all-in-ones, and workstations for design, engineering and video work.
Mobile devices. iPads and Android tablets, iPhones and smartphones, smartwatches.
Infrastructure. Servers, network attached storage, switching and connectivity equipment, wireless internet, UPS units.
Displays and AV. Monitors, large-format TV and LED displays, touchscreen displays, projectors and screens, PA and audio systems.
Office and event. Printers, scanners, shredders, event registration technology, kiosks, stands and lecterns, whiteboards and flipcharts, virtual reality and augmented reality equipment.
If you need a quantity of something and are not sure we have it, ring and ask. We quote within 20 minutes during business hours.
Short-term hire and long-term rental are different products
Short-term hire runs from a single day. Training rooms, exhibitions, conferences, audits, seasonal peaks, a project team that arrives for six weeks, a recovery scramble after an outage. Equipment arrives configured, is supported while you have it, and goes back when you are finished. Daily, weekly and monthly rates, quoted per job.
Long-term rental runs from twelve months and is usually about not owning laptops any more. Hardware, imaging, support, replacement on failure and end-of-term collection bundled into one monthly cost per device — Device as a Service, from $79 per device per month, ex GST. What you pay depends on the specification, the term and how much of the management sits with us.
Short-term hire is priced per job, because a single laptop for three days and forty laptops for a fortnight are not the same problem. Tell us quantity, specification and dates and you will have a price within 20 minutes during business hours.
There is no minimum order quantity. One laptop is a real order. So is five hundred.
Who we supply in Townsville
Townsville’s business base is not a scaled-down version of a capital city’s. It is a port and logistics city, a services centre for the mining and resources operations inland, a university and health city, and a regional hub for professional firms whose clients are spread across the north.
What those have in common is that equipment requirements arrive in blocks rather than trickling. A contract is won and a team needs kitting out. A semester or an intake starts. An audit or an inspection brings people to town for six weeks. A refurbishment moves fifty desks and everything on them. Rental suits block-shaped demand far better than purchasing does.
To be direct about what we are not. We do not hold government security clearances and we are not DISP members. We supply and support North Queensland’s private sector and government-adjacent businesses. If your requirement involves accredited personnel working inside a defence or government facility, we are not the right supplier and we will tell you on the first call rather than the third.
Business continuity, cyclones and the wet
Every Townsville business over a certain age has a continuity story, and most of them involve water, power, or both.
Rental has a specific role in that. When a site takes water or loses power for long enough to matter, the problem is rarely just the building — it is that thirty people have nowhere to work and the equipment they used is either wet or inaccessible. Replacement devices, configured and shipped as a block, get people working from wherever they can work, without a capital approval in the middle of an emergency.
It is worth having that arrangement understood before you need it rather than during. We are happy to have that conversation in a quiet month.
We rent to organisations, not households
MicroRentals is a business-to-business supplier. We work with companies, government bodies and educational institutions. We do not hire equipment to home users, and we do not do home computer repair or residential callouts.
In practice that means account terms rather than credit-card checkout, purchase orders, asset registers, insurance requirements and delivery to a loading dock — the paperwork side of renting to organisations, which is a different business from renting to consumers.
What is included
- Configured before delivery. Devices can be imaged to your standard operating environment, joined to your domain or tenancy, asset-tagged and enrolled in device management before they are dispatched. Custom imaging adds around three days; standard builds ship from stock.
- Replaced, not repaired. If a rented device fails during the term we replace it rather than fixing it in place — a replacement for a stocked configuration is dispatched within 4 hours for metropolitan addresses and within 1 business day for regional addresses, with final delivery by courier. You are not waiting on a repair queue.
- Supported for the term. Our engineers hold Cisco and Microsoft certifications and support the equipment while you have it.
- Wiped and rebuilt on return. Returned devices are wiped of all files and folders and rebuilt with a fresh operating system installation before they go back into the fleet.
- Scaled up or down. Add devices mid-term as headcount changes. Scale-down terms are set in your agreement.
Why organisations rent instead of buying
Three reasons come up over and over. The requirement is temporary — a project, an event, a peak, a secondment — and buying leaves you with equipment you did not want. The capital is better used elsewhere, and a monthly operating cost is easier to approve and easier to forecast than a capital purchase. Nobody wants to own the end of the lifecycle — the four-year-old laptops in the store room, the disposal question, the asset register nobody has updated since 2022.
There are tax and accounting considerations too, which are covered properly on the Device as a Service page. We are not accountants and that page says so; check anything that matters with yours.
How it works
1. Tell us what you need. Quantity, specification, dates, and where it is going. If you are not sure of the specification, describe what people will be doing on it.
2. Quote within 20 minutes. During business hours, with availability confirmed against actual stock.
3. Configuration. Standard builds ship from stock. Custom images add around three days.
4. Dispatch and delivery. Dispatched within 24 hours on stocked configurations, delivered by freight to your Townsville address, with the carrier’s estimate given to you up front.
5. Support, then collection. We support it while you have it and collect it when you are done.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have a warehouse in Townsville?
No. Our warehouse is in Sydney and Townsville orders are dispatched from there. What we have in Townsville is technicians — local people who handle on-site setup, delivery attendance and device swaps, rather than someone flown up when a job gets big enough. We would rather say that plainly than let you assume there is local stock.
How long does delivery to Townsville take?
We dispatch stocked configurations within 24 hours. The carrier owns the transit leg, so we give you their estimate rather than inventing one, and during the wet season we will tell you if freight into the north is being disrupted. Ring 1300 790 650 with your date and we will give you a straight answer.
Do you work with defence or hold clearances?
No. We do not hold security clearances and we are not DISP members. We supply North Queensland’s private sector and government-adjacent businesses. If your work requires accredited personnel inside a defence facility, we are not the right fit and we will say so early.
Can you help if we lose a site to flooding or a cyclone?
Yes, and it works far better if the arrangement exists beforehand. Replacement devices can be configured and shipped as a block so your people can work from wherever they end up, without a capital approval in the middle of an emergency. Freight into the north can be disrupted during the wet, which is exactly why planning ahead of the season is worth the hour it takes.
How much does it cost to hire a laptop in Townsville?
Short-term hire is quoted per job, because price depends on specification, quantity and duration. You will have a figure within 20 minutes during business hours. Long-term rental starts from $79 per device per month ex GST, and includes support, replacement on failure and end-of-term collection.
Is there a minimum order?
No. There is no minimum order quantity — a single device is a real order. Short-term hire starts from one day. Device as a Service agreements have a 12-month minimum term.
Do you rent to individuals?
No. We supply business, government and education customers only. We do not hire to home users.
What happens if something breaks during the hire?
We replace it rather than repair it, at no extra cost for the term. A replacement for a stocked configuration is dispatched within 4 hours for metropolitan addresses and within 1 business day for regional addresses, with final delivery by courier.
Will the laptops be set up with our software?
Yes, if you want them to be. Devices can be imaged to your standard operating environment, joined to your domain or Microsoft 365 tenancy, asset-tagged and enrolled in management before dispatch. Allow around three days for custom imaging.
What happens to our data when equipment goes back?
Returned devices are wiped of all files and folders and rebuilt with a fresh operating system installation before returning to the fleet.
Can we hire for a long project and then keep going month to month?
Yes. Short-term hires can be extended, and long-running requirements often convert to a Device as a Service agreement, which is cheaper per month and includes replacement and lifecycle management.
Do you also manage the devices, not just supply them?
Yes. MicroRentals is both an equipment rental company and a managed service provider, which is an unusual combination. Hardware and its management can sit under one agreement. See managed IT services in Townsville.
How long have you been doing this?
Since 1987 — nearly four decades supplying and supporting business IT equipment. Our engineers hold Cisco and Microsoft certifications.
Tell us what you need and when
Quantity, specification, dates and delivery address. We will come back within 20 minutes during business hours with availability, a price, and an honest read on whether your date is achievable.
MicroRentals · IT and AV equipment rental for Townsville and North Queensland businesses
1300 790 650 · [email protected] · Monday to Friday, 8:30am – 6:00pm
Head office and warehouse: 7-9 Underwood Road, Homebush NSW 2140. Townsville on-site work by our Townsville-based technicians.
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