New Sydney Fish Market - Coordinating High-Tempo Seafood Logistics at Scale
Overview
CBRE was appointed property and facilities manager for the new Sydney Fish Market, which opened in January 2026. The appointment entrusts CBRE with one of Australia's most significant fresh food and logistics precincts, spanning wholesale seafood auctions and a public retail marketplace across roughly 12,200 square metres of retail and dining space.
The precinct brings together a diverse tenant base of wholesale traders, retailers, hospitality operators and event and education vendors, each running to different operating hours. Cold-chain integrity, food safety and WHS obligations sit alongside standard property management, making it one of CBRE's busiest mixed-use assets in Australia and a site projected to draw millions of visitors a year.
Mobiledock was engaged to schedule and coordinate the 21 loading docks that underpin the site's daily operations, working across a highly time-critical environment where product freshness, timing and flow leave little margin for error.
About Sydney Fish Market
The Sydney Fish Market is one of Australia's most significant fresh food and logistics precincts, supporting both wholesale seafood auctions and a vibrant retail marketplace. Its 21 loading docks accommodate a diverse mix of operations across three distinct operational windows: early-morning wholesale buyers, daytime retail deliveries, and evening inbound replenishment.
This creates a highly time-critical environment that demands precise coordination across multiple stakeholders, with strict requirements around product freshness, timing and flow.
Challenges
The new market presented CBRE and its operating partners with a set of interlinked scheduling and coordination problems:
A high volume of bookings — 100+ per day — across 21 dock spaces
Time-critical coordination that had to align tightly with seafood auction cycles
Competing priorities between wholesale buyers and retail tenants
Limited visibility of dock activity across different operational phases
Risk of congestion and inefficiency during peak periods
The need to manage dynamic shifts in demand across the day
The Mobiledock Solution
Mobiledock had already been supporting dock operations at the previous Sydney Fish Market site, which allowed the team to carry that operational knowledge into the new precinct and enable faster adoption from day one.
Centralised Booking Platform
All dock activity across the site's 21 dock spaces is managed through a single digital platform, giving CBRE and its tenants one point of truth for bookings.
Dedicated Time Windows
Specific time windows and dock spaces are allocated by operation type, maximising efficiency across wholesale, retail and replenishment activity.
Real-Time Visibility
Supervisors and buying groups get live tracking of vehicle arrivals and dock utilisation, replacing guesswork with an accurate, shared picture of activity.
Multi-Stakeholder Coordination
Clear coordination between dock teams and wholesale buying groups is maintained across all shifts, keeping competing priorities aligned rather than in conflict.
Contract & Timeline
Mobiledock was awarded the contract as the loading dock management solution for the new precinct. Because the team had already been supporting operations at the previous Sydney Fish Market site, the transition to the new facility was smoother and adoption faster than a standalone implementation would typically allow.
Results
- More controlled and predictable vehicle flow across all dock areas
- Improved utilisation of all 21 dock spaces across shifting daily demand
- Full visibility for dock teams and wholesale buyers across all operational phases
- Significantly less congestion during peak auction and delivery periods
- Stronger coordination between wholesale and retail operations
- A confident transition from the old site to the new one, with zero drop in service
Summary: Benefits Realised
Since launch, the Sydney Fish Market has seen more predictable and controlled vehicle flow across all dock areas, reduced congestion during peak auction and delivery periods, and greater visibility for both dock teams and wholesale buyers. The transition from the old site to the new one was underpinned by strong operational confidence, with Mobiledock already embedded in the operation from day one.
The Sydney Fish Market demonstrates how Mobiledock enables a more controlled, efficient and predictable flow of goods in Australia's most complex fresh food logistics setting.