Postcodes in Australia


Postcodes in Australia are used to more efficiently sort and route mail in the Australian postal system. Postcodes in Australia have four digits and are placed at the end of the Australian address, before the country. Postcodes were introduced in Australia in 1967 by the Postmaster-General's Department and are now managed by Australia Post, Australia's national postal service. Postcodes are published in booklets available from post offices or online from the Australia Post website.
Australian envelopes and postcards often have four boxes printed in orange at the bottom right for the postcode. These are used to assist with the automated sorting of mail that has been addressed by hand for Australian delivery.

History

Postcodes were introduced in Australia in 1967 by the Postmaster-General's Department to replace earlier postal sorting systems, such as Melbourne's letter and number codes and a similar system then used in rural and regional New South Wales. The introduction of the postcodes coincided with the introduction of a large-scale mechanical mail sorting system in Australia, starting with the Redfern Mail Exchange in Sydney.
The initial digit of each postcode was copied directly from the previously-existing numerical prefixes of Australian radio call signs, which were based on state/territory borders. Over time, however, the initial digits of postcodes have deviated from the radio system, for example, the 8000 series refers to special addresses in Victoria. It is sometimes stated, incorrectly, that the initial digits of the postcodes corresponded to the geographical boundaries of the official Australian Military Districts, that existed in 1911–1997. In fact, only the boundaries of the initial 2- and initial 3– postcodes were ever similar to the former 2nd and former 3rd Military Districts, respectively.
By 1968, 75% of mail was using postcodes, and in the same year post office preferred-size envelopes were introduced, which came to be referred to as "standard envelopes".
Postcode squares were introduced in June 1990 to enable Australia Post to use optical character recognition software in its mail sorting machines to automatically and more quickly sort mail by postcodes.

Format

Australian postcodes consist of four digits, and are written after the name of the city, suburb, or town, and the state or territory:

Recipient Name
100 Citizen Road
BLACKTOWN NSW 2148

When writing an address by hand, and a row of four boxes is pre-printed on the lower right-hand corner of an envelope, the postcode may be written in the boxes instead. When posting to an organisation, business names can be written instead of a recipient name. If an article is intended for a specific identity within an organisation, their identity can be prepended on the line above the business name, with c/- prepended to the business name.
If addressing a letter from outside Australia, the postcode is recorded before 'Australia', which is placed on a fourth line.

Geography

Australian postcodes are sorting information. They are often linked with one area; e.g. 6160 belongs only to Fremantle, Western Australia. Due to postcode rationalisation, they can be quite complex, especially in country areas; e.g. 2570 belongs to twenty-two towns and suburbs around Camden, New South Wales. The south-western Victoria 3221 postcode of the Geelong Mail Centre also includes twenty places around Geelong with very few people. This means that mail for these places is not fully sorted until it gets to Geelong. Some postcodes cover large populations, while other postcodes have much smaller populations, even in urban areas. Australian postcodes range from 0200 for the Australian National University to 9944 for Cannonvale, Queensland.
Some towns and suburbs have two postcodes — one for street deliveries and another for post office boxes. For example, a street address in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta would be written like this:
But mail sent to a PO Box in Parramatta would be addressed:
Many large businesses, government departments and other institutions receiving high volumes of mail had their own postcode as a Large Volume Receiver, e.g. the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital has the postcode 4029, the Australian National University had the postcode 0200. More postcode ranges were made available for LVRs in the 1990s. Australia Post has been progressively discontinuing the LVR programme since 2006.

Places without postcodes

Some places in Australia do not have postcodes. These are typically remote areas with little or no population.

Allocation

Australian states and territories

The first one or two numerals usually show the state or territory that the postcode belongs to

State/TerritoryAbbreviationPostcode range
New South WalesNSW1000—1999 '
2000—2599
2619—2899
2921—2999
Australian Capital TerritoryACT0200—0299 '
2600—2618
2900—2920
VictoriaVIC3000—3996
8000—8999 '
QueenslandQLD4000—4999
9000—9999 '
South AustraliaSA5000—5799
5800—5999 '
Western AustraliaWA6000—6797
6800—6999 '
TasmaniaTAS7000—7799
7800—7999 '
Northern TerritoryNT0800—0899
0900—0999 '

Sometimes near the state and territory borders, Australia Post finds it easier to send mail through a nearby post office that is across the border:
PostcodeLocalityState derived from
Postcode ranges		Actual State
for this locality
4825ALPURRURULAMQLDNT
0872ERNABELLANTSA
0872FREGONNTSA
0872INDULKANANTSA
0872MIMILINTSA
0872NGAANYATJARRA-GILESNTWA
0872GIBSON DESERT NORTHNTWA
0872GIBSON DESERT SOUTHNTWA
2406MUNGINDINSWNSW and QLD
2540HMAS CRESWELLNSWJervis Bay Territory
2540JERVIS BAYNSWJervis Bay Territory
2611COOLEMANACTNSW
2611BIMBERIACTNSW
2611BRINDABELLAACTNSW
2611URIARRAACTNSW
2620HUMENSWACT
2620KOWENNSWACT
2620KOWEN FORESTNSWACT
2620OAKS ESTATENSWACT
2620THARWANSWACT
2620TOP NAASNSWACT
3585MURRAY DOWNSVICNSW
3586MALLANVICNSW
3644BAROOGAVICNSW
3644LALALTYVICNSW
3691LAKE HUME VILLAGEVICNSW
3707BRINGENBRONGVICNSW
4380MINGOOLAQLDNSW
4377MARYLANDQLDNSW
4383JENNINGSQLDNSW
4385TEXASQLDNSW and QLD

Some of the postcodes above may cover two or more states. For example, postcode 2620 covers both a locality in NSW as well as a locality in the ACT, and postcode 0872 covers a number of localities across WA, SA and NT.
Three locations straddle the NSW-Queensland border.
Jervis Bay Territory is located on the coast of NSW. It is just south of the towns of Vincentia and Huskisson, with which it shares a postcode. Mail to the Jervis Bay Territory is addressed to the ACT.
The numerals used to show the state on each radio callsign in Australia are the same numeral as the first numeral for postcodes in that state, e.g. 2xx in New South Wales, 3xx in Victoria, etc. Radio callsigns pre-date postcodes in Australia by more than forty years.

External territories

are also included in Australia Post's postcode system. While these territories do not belong to any state, they are addressed as such for mail sorting:
External territoryPostal statePostcode
Norfolk IslandNSW2899
Christmas IslandWA6798
Cocos IslandsWA6799
Heard and McDonald IslandsTAS7151

Three scientific bases in Antarctica operated by the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions share a postcode with the isolated sub-Antarctic island of Macquarie Island :
Antarctic basePostal statePostcode
Casey StationTAS7151
Davis StationTAS7151
Mawson StationTAS7151

There is also a "special" postcode for routing mail sent to Santa Claus:

State and territory capital cities

Each state's capital city ends with three zeroes, while territorial capital cities end with two zeroes. Capital city postcodes were the lowest postcodes in their state or territory range, before new ranges for LVRs and PO Boxes were made available. The last numeral can usually be changed from "0" to "1" to get the postcode for General Post Office boxes in any capital city :
CityState/TerritoryStreet AddressGPO Box Address
SydneyNSW20002001
CanberraACT26002601
MelbourneVIC30003001
BrisbaneQLD40004001
AdelaideSA50005001
PerthWA60006001
HobartTAS70007001
DarwinNT08000801