Postcodes in Australia

Last updated

Australian postcodes have four digits; many envelopes for posting within Australia have four square boxes, one for each digit of the postcode. AustralianEnvelopePostcode.JPG
Australian postcodes have four digits; many envelopes for posting within Australia have four square boxes, one for each digit of the postcode.

Postcodes in Australia are used to more efficiently sort and route mail within 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.

Contents

Australian envelopes and postcards often have four square 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 (PMG) to replace earlier postal sorting systems, such as Melbourne's letter and number codes (e.g., N3, E5) 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, [1] starting with the Sydney GPO.

The first digit for each state's postcode was copied directly from Australian radio call signs. Over time, digits beyond this set have come to be used for PO Boxes etc., for example the 8000 series refers to special addresses in Victoria. It is sometimes stated that the numbering was based on the (now retired) Australian Military Administrative Districts, however this is incorrect. For example, in that numbering scheme Queensland is 1, and 4 is South Australia. [2]

By 1968, 75% of mail was using postcodes, and in the same year post office preferred-size envelopes were introduced, [1] which came to be referred to as "standard envelopes".

Postcode squares were introduced in June 1990 [3] to enable Australia Post to use optical character recognition (OCR) software in its mail sorting machines to automatically and more quickly sort mail by postcodes.

Format

Australian postcodes consist of four digits, [4] 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.[ citation needed ] Some postcodes cover large populations (e.g., postcode 4350 serving some 100,000 people in Toowoomba and the surrounding area), while other postcodes have much smaller populations, even in urban areas. Australian postcodes range from 0200 for the Australian National University (now 2601) 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:

Mr John Smith
99 George Street
PARRAMATTA NSW 2150

But mail sent to a PO Box in Parramatta would be addressed:

Mr John Smith
PO Box 99
PARRAMATTA NSW 2124

Many large businesses, government departments and other institutions receiving high volumes of mail had their own postcode as a Large Volume Receiver (LVR), 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.[ citation needed ]

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

2-digit postcode areas of Australia 2 digit postcode australia.png
2-digit postcode areas of Australia
State/TerritoryAbbreviationPostcode range
New South Wales NSW1000—1999 (LVRs and PO Boxes only)
2000—2599
2619—2899
2921—2999
Australian Capital Territory ACT0200—0299 (LVRs and PO Boxes only)
2600—2618
2900—2920
Victoria VIC3000—3996
8000—8999 (LVRs and PO Boxes only)
Queensland QLD4000—4999
9000—9999 (LVRs and PO Boxes only)
South Australia SA5000—5799
5800—5999 (LVRs and PO Boxes only)
Western Australia WA6000—6797
6800—6999 (LVRs and PO Boxes only)
Tasmania TAS7000—7799
7800—7999 (LVRs and PO Boxes only)
Northern Territory NT0800—0899
0900—0999 (LVRs and PO Boxes only)

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 CRESWELLNSW Jervis Bay Territory
2540JERVIS BAYNSW Jervis 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 (Gundaroo) as well as a locality in the ACT (Hume), and postcode 0872 covers a number of localities across WA, SA and NT.

Three locations (Mingoola, [5] Mungindi [6] and Texas [7] ) straddle the NSW-Queensland border (so same town name and postcode on both sides).

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

Australia's 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 Island NSW2899
Christmas Island WA6798
Cocos (Keeling) Islands WA6799

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 (part of Tasmania):

Antarctic basePostal statePostcode
Casey Station TAS7151
Davis Station TAS7151
Mawson Station TAS7151

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

Arctic basePostal statePostcode
North Pole VIC9999 [8]

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 (though Perth now uses a different range of postcodes for its GPO Boxes):

CityState/TerritoryStreet AddressGPO Box Address
Sydney NSW20002001
Canberra ACT26002601
Melbourne VIC30003001
Brisbane QLD40004001
Adelaide SA50005001
Perth WA60006001
Hobart TAS70007001
Darwin NT08000801

Allocation within states

While the first numeral of a postcode usually shows the state or territory, the second numeral usually shows a region within the state. However, postcodes with the same second numeral are not always next to each other. As an example, postcodes in the range 2200–2299 are split between the southern suburbs of Sydney and the Central Coast, Lake Macquarie and Newcastle regions of New South Wales.

Postcodes with a second numeral of "0" or "1" are almost always located within the metropolitan area of the state's capital city. Postcodes with higher second numerals are usually located in rural and regional areas. Common exceptions are where towns were rural when postcodes were first introduced in 1967, but have since been suburbanised and incorporated into metropolitan areas, e.g. Penrith, New South Wales has the postcode 2750 and Petrie, Queensland has the postcode 4502.

Within each region with the same second numeral, postcodes are usually allocated in ascending order the further one travels from the state's capital city along major highways and railways. For instance, heading north on the North Coast railway in New South Wales away from Sydney:

TownPostcodeDistance from Central Station
Dungog 2420245 km (152 mi)
Taree 2430378 km (235 mi)
Kempsey 2440503 km (313 mi)
Coffs Harbour 2450607 km (377 mi)
Grafton 2460695 km (432 mi)
Casino 2470805 km (500 mi)

Major towns and cities

Major towns and cities tend to have "0" as the last numeral or last two numerals, e.g. Rockhampton, Queensland has the postcode 4700 and Ballarat, Victoria has the postcode 3350. There are exceptions; the major town of Ipswich, Queensland has the postcode 4305, while Goodna, a relatively small suburb of Ipswich, is allocated 4300.

Postcode squares

Australia Post prefers envelopes sold in Australia to have four boxes in the bottom right corner of the front of the envelope. Entering the postcode in these boxes or squares, which Australia Post calls postcode squares, enables Australia Post to use optical character recognition software in its mail sorting machines to automatically and more quickly sort mail into postcodes, which also embeds routing information. Postcode squares were introduced in June 1990. [3]

Australia Post says that postcode squares should not be used for machine-addressed mail, or mail going overseas.

Other uses

Many other organisations now use postcodes. Insurance companies often use postcodes when working out the cost of car and house insurance. Transport for NSW uses postcodes to give specific numbers for each bus stop in Greater Sydney. The stop number is five to seven numbers: the first four are the postcode, and the others show the bus stop (sometimes written with a space in between, e.g. "2000 108").

Many companies that produce metropolitan street maps also list the postcodes for each suburb, both in indexes and on the maps themselves. Spatial representation of postcodes is also very popular in defining sales and franchise territories.

Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Taxation Office and many other Federal and State government organisations publish a variety of statistics by postcode which extends the use Australia Post four digit code to many business and social planning related activities.

There is an inherent problem with spatial representation of postcodes since areas referenced to a specific postal code tend to change over time, as new postcodes are added or existing ones are split by Australia Post for operational purposes. [9]

Some mail generating software can automatically sort outward mail by postcode before it is generated. This pre-sort of mail into postcode order eliminates the need for it to be sorted manually or using mail sorting machines.

Mechanised sorting

To improve mechanised sorting, each address now has a sorting number which is printed on the letter as an orange-coloured barcode. This number might be 12 digits long. This system enables the post office to place items in delivery order. Companies can also use Rapid Addressing Tool (RATS) to print Customer Addressed Barcodes, which are printed above the address. Every Delivery Point in Australia (DPID) has its own number. Barcode sorter machines sort and sequence letters up to C5 size. Flat multi-level OCR reads, imprints and sorts C5 to A3 sized articles.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Postal code</span> Series of letters and digits for sorting mail

A postal code is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal address for the purpose of sorting mail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ZIP Code</span> Numeric postal code used in the US and its territories

A ZIP Code is a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service (USPS). The term ZIP was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently and quickly when senders use the code in the postal address.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Postcodes in the United Kingdom</span>

Postal codes used in the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the General Post Office . The system uses alphanumeric codes to designate geographic areas. A full postcode, also known as a "postcode unit", identifies a group of addresses or a major delivery point. It consists of an outward code and inward code. The outward code indicates the area and district, while the inward code specifies the sector and delivery point, typically encompassing about 15 addresses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Postal codes in Canada</span>

A Canadian postal code is a six-character string that forms part of a postal address in Canada. Like British, Irish and Dutch postcodes, Canada's postal codes are alphanumeric. They are in the format A1A 1A1, where A is a letter and 1 is a digit, with a space separating the third and fourth characters. As of October 2019, there were 876,445 postal codes using Forward Sortation Areas from A0A in Newfoundland to Y1A in Yukon.

Mailsort was a five-digit address-coding scheme used by the Royal Mail and its business customers for the automatic direction of mail until 2012. Mail users who could present mail sorted by Mailsort code and in quantities of 4,000 upwards received a discounted postal rate.

Poste restante, also known as general delivery in North American English, is a service where the post office holds the mail until the recipient calls for it. It is a common destination for mail for people who are visiting a particular location and have no need, or no way, of having mail delivered directly to their place of residence at that time.

Postcodes in New Zealand consist of four digits, the first two of which specify the area, the third the type of delivery, and the last the specific lobby, RD number, or suburb. The present postcode system was introduced in New Zealand in June 2006, which, unlike the previous system, applies to all items of mail with effect from June 2008. In October 2008, New Zealand Post launched a 'remember your postcode' campaign, offering a $10,000 prize for remembering a postcode.

Postal codes were introduced in South Africa on 8 October 1973, with the introduction of automated sorting.

Postal codes were introduced in France in 1964, when La Poste introduced automated sorting. They were updated to use the current 5 digit system in 1972.

Spanish postal codes were introduced on 1 July 1984, when the Sociedad Estatal de Correos y Telégrafos introduced automated mail sorting. They consist of five numerical digits, where the first two digits, ranging 01 to 52, correspond either to one of the 50 provinces of Spain or to one of the two autonomous cities on the African coast.

In a postal system, a delivery point is a single mailbox or other place at which mail is delivered. It differs from a street address, in that each address may have several delivery points, such as an apartment, office department, or other room. Such buildings are often called multiple-dwelling units (MDUs) by the USPS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Post office box</span> Rented mailbox at a post office

A post office box is a uniquely addressable lockable box located on the premises of a post office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Address</span> Collection of information that describes the location of a building, apartment, or other structure

An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used to give the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along with other identifiers such as house or apartment numbers and organization name. Some addresses also contain special codes, such as a postal code, to make identification easier and aid in the routing of mail.

Postal codes in Malaysia, usually referred to as postcodes, are five digit numeric.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Postal addresses in the Republic of Ireland</span>

A postal address in Ireland is a place of delivery defined by Irish Standard (IS) EN 14142-1:2011 and serviced by the universal service provider, An Post. Its addressing guides comply with the guidelines of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the United Nations-affiliated body responsible for promoting standards in the postal industry, across the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freepost</span> Postal service paid for upon receipt

Freepost is a postal service provided by various postal administrations, whereby a person sends mail without affixing postage, and the recipient pays the postage when collecting the mail. Freepost differs from self-addressed stamped envelopes, courtesy reply mail, and metered reply mail in that the recipient of the freepost pays only for those items that are actually received, rather than for all that are distributed. Freepost of preprinted cards issued by businesses is also different from postal stationery sold by postal administrations.

For the purposes of directing mail, Sweden is divided into a number of postcode areas. The Swedish postcode system is administered by the Swedish Mail Service on behalf of the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Postal codes in Thailand</span>

Postal codes in Thailand are five digit numbers. The first two digits of the postal code denote the province or special administrative area, while the last 3 digits represent the post office within the province. There are exceptions, for example, Bangkok and Samut Prakan province shared the first two digits 10xxx. It's typical to use postal code ended with zero 0 because they are assigned to post office that are responsible for delivering mail to the district. For example, mails to Dusit district destinations uses postal code 10300 except within Chitralada Palace where postal code 10303 is used. 10300 is postal code of Dusit Post Office which handles the delivery throughout Dusit district while 10303 is postal code of Chitralada Palace Post Office which does not deliver mails outside the palace. Other post offices in Dusit district exist, such as Bang Krabu Post Office with postal code 10301, the code used for mails to be delivered to P.O. Box in the post office.

In 2012, the government of Trinidad and Tobago approved the introduction of postal codes starting later that same year. In addition to the postal code implementation the country has embarked on a nationwide address improvement initiative adopting the Universal Postal Union (UPU) S-42 international standard of addressing. The UPU is an arm of the United Nations and is the coordinating body of postal services worldwide. The intent of this exercise is to correct poor addressing in Trinidad & Tobago and assign to each address a six-digit postal code. This change will result in the following:

References

  1. 1 2 Daniel Vidoni. "History and Assignment of Postcodes". Store Finder. Archived from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  2. "Military districts". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
  3. 1 2 Alford, John (2009). Engaging Public Sector Clients: From Service-Delivery to Co-Production. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 86. doi:10.1057/9780230235816. ISBN   978-1-349-30872-9. Archived from the original on 2 October 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  4. Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. "PSMA Geocoded National Address File (G-NAF)". Data.gov.au. Archived from the original on 27 September 2019. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  5. Australia Post. "Mingoola Postcode". auspost.com.au. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  6. Australia Post. "Mungindi Postcode". auspost.com.au. Archived from the original on 28 February 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  7. Australia Post. "Texas Postcode". auspost.com.au. Archived from the original on 28 February 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  8. "9999 Postcode". 8 April 2021. Archived from the original on 4 October 2021. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  9. "Australian Postcodes User Guide". All Things Spatial Blog. 21 September 2010. Archived from the original on 15 December 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.