Article summarising the cargo bike options in Australia (as of 2012)

A little Melbourne-centric, which is after all where most of the cargo bikes are available.

http://rideons.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/ditch-the-car/

It is nice the wide range of bikes that are covered, including a couple of families of bikes that are Australian designed and Chinese manufactured.  Those cargo bikes are not surprisingly much cheaper than the European ones.

I generally agree with their analysis overall, with the exception that they don't consider level of maintenance required, and a comment about ground clearance and an errata on the weight for the Christiania two-wheeler.

The bakfiets, while heavier and more expensive, use the components that they do so that maintenance is minimised as far as possible.  For example, the use of shimano roller drum brakes and dyanamo hubs so that you don't have to worry about brake maintenance or your front light going flat.

The Christiania two wheeler has a very low crank. Even on the bakfiets long I find the crank is quite low if you make a sweeping bend with the wrong pedal down.  Having it even lower, like on the Christiania would annoy me. Also, the article quotes the bike as 23kg when it actually weighs 28kg -- but still a considerable 6kg or so lighter than the bakfiets, and the Christiania fits smaller riders much better.