Australian defense department dumps old IT equipment

18.05.2006
A warehouse full of IT equipment will be sold by the Australian Department of Defence this month as it moves to dispose of aging computer and network devices.

Up to 200 pallets of PCs, notebooks, monitors, printers, servers, televisions, and networking equipment is being offered for sale on an "as is, where is" basis.

All the equipment has been classed as "sanitized", meaning all data storage devices, including hard disk drives, have been removed from devices like PCs and notebooks. The equipment will not be broken into individual or sub lots and all bids will be for the total of all pallets.

While the department has marked this batch for sale, it is open to donating old IT equipment to charity at no charge. However, charity groups are urged to apply for such donations through the Defence Minister's office as there are already separate programs in place.

The batch is not part of Defence's regular IT refresh cycle, which is offered to charity first, according to a Defence spokesperson. Computerworld understands the department has donated some old IT equipment to schools.

Defence does not know how much the equipment will sell for, but a spokesperson said there is "no bottom line" and will fetch whatever the buyer "believes it's worth".