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Postcodes were introduced in Australia in 1967 by the Postmaster-General's Department (PMG), the predecessor of Australia Post.

Australian postcodes are routing information, and while they are often associated with a single bounded geographical area (e.g. suburb or town) they are not always contiguous areas. They sometimes have quite complex geography, especially in areas beyond the urban fringe (e.g. the southern Queensland 4352 postcode). Some postcodes cover large populations (e.g., postcode 4350 serving some 100,000 people in the City of Toowoomba). The postcodes range from as low as 0200 (for the Australian National Uni) to 9729 (for the Gold Coast).

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

400 Kent Street

Sydney NSW 2000

Australia

Contents 1 Format 2 State and territory capitals 3 Post Codes for PO Box and large users 4 Exceptions to these Postcode Ranges 5 See also 6 External links

Although the first digit of the post code indicates the state or territory, an abbreviation is also used:

State/Territory	Abbreviation	Post Code
New South Wales	NSW	2xxx
Australian Capital Territory	ACT	2600 to 2618 and 29xx
Victoria	Vic	3xxx
Queensland	Qld	4xxx
South Australia	SA	5xxx
Western Australia	WA	6xxx
Tasmania	Tas	7xxx
Northern Territory	NT	08xx and 09xx

This does not apply to Australia's External Territories of Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands:

Territory	Post Code
Norfolk Island	2899
Christmas Island	6798
Cocos (Keeling) Islands	6799

Each state or territory's capital has two separate post codes, for street addresses (ending with the digits '00') and PO Box addresses (ending with the digits '01'):

City	State/Territory	Street Address		PO Box Address
Sydney	NSW	2000		2001
Canberra	ACT	2600		2601
Melbourne	Vic	3000		3001
Brisbane	Qld	4000		4001
Adelaide	SA	5000		5001
Perth	WA	6000		6001
Hobart	Tas	7000		7001
Darwin	NT	0800		0801

In the late 1990s, new post code ranges were introduced for PO Box and large users in the following cities:

City	State/Territory	Post Code
Canberra	ACT	02xx
Sydney	NSW	1xxx
Melbourne	Vic	8xxx
Brisbane	Qld	9xxx

Although postcode areas in Australia are supposed to correspond with state and territory boundaries, there are many exceptions as of 22 September 2005 (taken by querying Australia Post's own public database):

Postcode	Suburb	State Derived from Postcode Ranges	Actual State for this Suburb
0872	ERNABELLA	NT	SA
0872	FREGON	NT	SA
0872	INDULKANA	NT	SA
0872	MIMILI	NT	SA
0872	NGAANYATJARRA-GILES	NT	SA
0872	FGIBSON DESERT NORTH	NT	WA
0872	FGIBSON DESERT SOUTH	NT	WA
2540	HMAS CRESWELL	NSW	ACT
2540	JERVIS BAY	NSW	ACT
2611	BRINDABELLA	ACT	NSW
2611	URIARRA	ACT	NSW
2620	HUME	NSW	ACT
2620	KOWEN FOREST	NSW	ACT
2620	OAKS ESTATE	NSW	ACT
2620	THARWA	NSW	ACT
2620	TOP NAAS	NSW	ACT
3500	PARINGI	VIC	NSW
3585	MURRAY DOWNS	VIC	NSW
3586	MALLAN	VIC	NSW
3644	BAROOGA	VIC	NSW
3644	LALALTY	VIC	NSW
3707	BRINGENBRONG	VIC	NSW

Some or all of the postcodes above may span two states. For example postcode 2620 covers both a suburb in NSW (Gundaroo) as well as a suburb in the ACT (Hume) - the postcode is within the ACT range.

Jervis Bay, an exclave of the ACT, is geographically located on the coast of NSW, just south of the towns of Vincentia and Huskisson, which accounts for it having a NSW postcode.

1. List of postcodes in the Australian Capital Territory
2. List of postcodes in Geelong
3. List of postcodes in New South Wales (A-E)
4. List of postcodes in New South Wales (F-M)
5. List of postcodes in New South Wales (N-Z)
6. List of postcodes in the Northern Territory
7. List of postcodes in Queensland (A-K)
8. List of postcodes in Queensland (L-Z)
9. List of postcodes in South Australia
10. List of postcodes in Tasmania
11. List of postcodes in Victoria
12. List of postcodes in Western Australia

• Australia Post
• Australia Post: Postcode Search
• Australian Postal Code Database