Country phone, mail, and TV codes are required to make international mailings, dialing, and for other various purposes. Country codes, developed by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) are short numerical, alphabetical, and internationally recognized geographical codes that represent various countries and dependent areas. These codes are mainly used in communications and data processing. Also, the codes are developed for states of the countries and territories nearby generally represented in the form of two letter or three letter combination. The term country code frequently refers to ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 or international dialing codes, the E.164 country calling codes.
This standard ISO 3166-1 describes for most countries and its states, dependent areas including territories in the world.
- a two-letter (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2)
- a three-letter (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3), and
- a three-digit numeric (ISO 3166-1 numeric) code
The two letter codes are commonly used to refer basis for some other codes or applications such as for ISO 4217 currency codes and with deviations, for country code top-level domain names (ccTLDs) on the Internet: list of Internet TLDs.
According to Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), Australia is the largest spatial unit in its main structure. To align with standard ISO 3166, the ASGS code for Geographic Australia is identified by the unique three-digit code of 036.
Australia is divided into six states and ten territories that are separately recognized by ASGS. ISO 3166-2: AU is the entry code for Australia published by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) in ISO 3166-2, a part of the ISO 3166 standard. We can understand each code by dividing it into two parts, and are separated by a hyphen. The first part is AU, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of Australia whereas the second part is two or three letters format, which is the straight abbreviation of the state or territory.
The six states are:
- New South Wales
- Victoria
- Queensland
- Western Australia
- South Australia and
- Tasmania
Some of the territories of Australia are:
- Northern Territory
- Australian Capital Territory
- Jervis Bay Territory
- Territory of Christmas Island
- Territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands
- Territory of Norfolk Island
States and Territories are actually identified by unique one-digit codes within Australia as follows:
State and Territory Codes and Names
Code S/T
1 New South Wales
2 Victoria
3 Queensland
4 South Australia
5 Western Australia
6 Tasmania
7 Northern Territory
8 Australian Capital Territory
9 Other Territories
Here are the post codes chart used for PO Boxes that tell where something is from in data processing and communications.
Note: “nn” in the chart means a number and “xx” in the chart means a number or letter
| Phone Area Codes | Mail Post Codes | AM / FM Radio Call Signs | TV Callsigns | Amateur Callsigns | |
| ACT | 2 | 02nn*, 26nn, 29nn | 1xx(x) | xx(x)Cn | VK1xx |
| NSW | 2 | 1nnn*, 2nnn | 2xx(x) | xx(x)Nn | VK2xx |
| VIC | 3 | 8nnn*, 3nnn | 3xx(x) | xx(x)Vn | VK3xx |
| QLD | 7 | 9nnn*, 4nnn | 4xx(x) | xx(x)Qn | VK4xx |
| SA | 8 | 5nnn | 5xx(x) | xx(x)Sn | VK5xx |
| WA | 8 | 6nnn | 6xx(x) | xx(x)Wn | VK6xx |
| TAS | 3 | 7nnn | 7xx(x) | xx(x)Tn | VK7xx |
| NT | 8 | 08nn | 8xx(x) | xx(x)Dn | VK8xx |
- 0011 is the International Access (Dialing) Code from within Australia.
- 61 is the International Country Code for Australia.
The Australia’s payphones are color coded like red ones, green ones, gold, and blue ones. Red ones indicate local calls whereas blue, gold, and green ones are used for international calls. Australian phone number generally contains 10 numbers- 8 numbers are just numbers while 2 are used for area code.
The area codes for the main Australian cities are:
- Adelaide – 08
- Brisbane – 07
- Canberra – 02
- Darwin – 08
- Hobart – 03
- Melbourne – 03
- Perth – 08
- Sydney – 02
If you are calling from outside Australia, add the international dialing code i.e. ‘00’. Be sure while dialing because 000 is the emergency services number. ‘000’ is the free emergency number used in Australia for police, ambulance, and fire brigade. In general, the basic dialing format in emergency is 0011 + Country Code + Area code + Telephone Number. The format to call Australia from overseas is country code for Australia + the area code for the state/territory + the phone number.
‘112’ is used for all GSM or GSM derived mobile phones which is automatically translated to the country’s emergency number.
How about the people who are dealing with deaf or hearing and speech impairment can use these emergency numbers!? These people can use ‘text based emergency number’ i.e. ‘106’.
Note: You need to drop the leading 0 from the area code for international calls to Australia. For example: the phone number in Australia starts with 04. An international call to Australia requires ‘0’ to be dropped and addition of ‘61’ code followed by the regular phone number (+614).
Interstate area dialing codes
Australian Capital Territory 02
New South Wales 02
Northern Territory 08
Queensland 07
South Australia 08
Tasmania 03
Victoria 03
Western Australia 08
Mailing System in Australia
The postal system in Australia is operated by Australia’s Post where you can also pay certain bills, applies for passport, and for sending money outside Australia. Australian suburbs and towns are generally identified by a four-digit postcode which is used while addressing a letter or a package.
