Australian Postcode System

[prworld]

Hi

Based in the UK, I use a 'postcode address insertion' system to speedily input client details from their postcode.

Is the same facility available/possible for the Australian Postcode system? i.e. input postcode and postal address is displayed...

Many thanks

 

[alvechurchdata]

I'm in the UK too. I know nothing about Australian postcodes either but I've always found this site useful:

http://www.bitboost.com/ref/international-address-formats.html

We use Quick Address from

http://www.qas.com/

for UK postcode lookup and I believe they've got an Australian arm.

Geoff Franklin

http://www.alvechurchdata.co.uk

 

[ChrisHunt]

Looking briefly at Geoff's link, it appears that Aussie postcodes are more akin to US zip codes than to the UK variety. That is, they refer to a whole locality rather than to a particular street. That would make them a lot less useful for speed-entering addresses.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[mmerlinn]

Aussie postcodes are very similar to U.S. zip codes basically identifying the delivery office for the mail. Even the way they are assigned is similar as the leftmost digit identifies the region of the country, the next a sub-region within that region, etc. The last two digits in the 5-digit U.S. zips identify the particular delivery office within the sub-region (third digit) of the sub-region (second digit) of the region of the U.S. (first digit).

If I remember correctly, I think the Aussie postcodes, which are 4-digits long, only use the first two digits for the region (first digit) and sub-region (second digit) with the last two identifying the delivery office within that sub-region of a region of Australia. I seem to remember that the regions were each of the Aussie 'states' plus Tasmania, with each one identified by the first digit of the postcode. In the U.S. each region is comprised of several states and/or territorial possessions.

When I was in Sydney, Australia in the late sixties, I took a tour of the Main Postal facility in Sydney. It was all explained to me then, but time has taken its toll, so some of this may not be exactly correct. At that time the Australian postal system was very highly automated, while the U.S. system was barely beginning to use zip codes. Even today the U.S. system in some areas is not as highly automated as the whole Aussie system was at that time.

For example, when I was there in the 1960's, the mail at the main postal facility in Sydney was automatically machine sorted to every Aussie postcode. The only human handling was to dump the mail at one end, then pack the sorted mail into mail bags for delivery to the individual post office. The machines did everything else, like facing, canceling, and sorting the mail using the postcodes on the mail.

Since I was a U.S. Postal employee at that time and knew how the U.S. postal system worked (or better yet, fumbled along) I was absolutely amazed at the superiority of the Aussie postal system at that time. It would not surprise me at all to find out that much of the current U.S. mail system, including the zip codes, may indeed be modeled on the Aussie system.

For more info on U.S. zip codes please see this thread:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1127243

mmerlinn

"Political correctness is the BADGE of a COWARD!"

 

[Kraeg]

The Aussie Post web site has info about Aussie post codes, as well as a downloadable post code data file:

http://www1.auspost.com.au/postcodes/