Re: CHAT: postcodes

On Saturday 21 September 2002 04:00, wayne chevrier wrote:

> In Canada a similar system is in use, LDL DLD
> 1st letter:province/territory(or part thereof for Ontario and Quebec)
> A= newfoundland V=British Columbia
> 1st number is 0 for rural
> after that down to block in cities,post office rural
> (H0H 0H0 is for those addressed to Santa Claus, North Pole, Canada)
> Also similar systems are in use in Australia and New Zealand(closer to the
> UK system).

Not unless I don't live in Australia ;)

Here, there are four-digit Post Codes. The first number denotes the state
you're in; 3xxx (and 8xxx for newer areas) is Vic, 2xxx is NSW and the ACT (I
imagine they have another series for newer areas, too), 0xxx is NT, dunno
about the rest of the states. (Victoria's area code is (03) and NSW/ACT is
(02), so imagine the first digit of the post code is the same as non-zero
digit in the old area codes for the state's capital city.)* What the actual
xxx is appears to be pretty arbitrary. I know that in Victoria, 3000-3004 and
8000-8004 are for (West/East) Melbourne and the World Trade Centre. The post
codes map fairly well to suburbs in metropolitan areas, but not exactly;
Pascoe Vale South and Pascoe Vale both are 3044 (but Altona and Altona North
are 3018 and 3025). North of the Yarra River generally has lower postcodes
than north of it; North Melbourne is 3051, South Melbourne is 3205. So yes,
our post codes are pretty arbritary.

The simplest way of sending a letter to me, to the best of my knowledge, is:
Tristan
12 Monteith Cres
3802
Australia

(with Endeavour Hills (an outer suburb of Melbourne created in the 70s, just
across the South Eastern (okay, Monash Fwy these days...) is Doveton with
3177, a much older suburb) and Victoria being implied by the PC).

*In about 1995, area codes where simplified somewhat. There used to be a
hell-of-a-lot, but now there's just five or so; one for Vic./Tas. (03), (03)
used to be Melbourne, (02) for NSW/ACT, (02) used to be Sydney... can't
remember the others. For country areas, phone numbers used to be
(0aa) nn nnnn and became (0c) aann nnnn, where aa are two numbers, the Ns are
just numbers, and the c is the area code of the state. For city areas, phone
numbers used to be (0c) nnn nnnn and became (0c) xnnn nnnn, where x was a
number for the cities; Brisbane got 3 I think, Melb. and Syd. got 9s. So my
phone number would have used to have been (03) 706 1363 and it became (03
9706 1363. Toll-free numbers used to be 008 xxx xxx and became 1800 xxx xxx.
So basically, all numbers are now 10 digits, apart from some newer 1800 and
190x numbers (all very new), the 13y xxx numbers (where y is not 0), 000
(tripple zero, our emergency number/equiv of 911...)

The first four digits indicade the exchange your calling and are much more
sensibly arranged, so you can tell where someone lives roughly by phone
number. Zeros come *after* nines; Dandenong is 9795, Endeavour Hills is 9706.
There are only a handful of numbers with zeros or ones as the second digit
for historical reasons; these are becoming more common with businesses.

Mobile phone numbers being with 04, written 04nn nnn nnn; mine is 0421 856
408. You don't (can't?) leave the '04' off when calling another mobile phone,
but you can leave the e.g. 03 off if you're in Victoria/Tasmania when
calling. As with area codes, the initial 0 is dropped when dialling from
another country (e.g. +61 421 856 408 or +61 3 9706 1363). It's my understand
that in the US, you can't tell the diff b/n mobile and landline numbers and
thus you have to pay to receive calls! (Is that true?)

So basically... the long and short of it all is you can't tell if it's a long
distance number by the area code; if I ring (03) 5621 5532, I'll be paying
through my teeth for a timed call, but if I ring (03) 8621 5532, I'll be
paying 20 cents for an untimed call.

In Ancient History (before I was born at any rate), both area and post codes
(and phone numbers in general) were alphanumeric. I have no idea how they
worked... (Note: in the alphanumeric system, T, U, V and 8 weren't
interchangeable, for example.)

On the topic of number plates, as we call them...
They are formatted LLL DDD (except in Qld, which uses DDD LLL; during the 80s
and early 90s at least, their number plates looked the same as Victorian
unless you were up close to them). They are generally larger vertically but
shorter horizontally then European number plates, but on Euro-designed cars
that forgot to consider the difference in number plate sizes, you get cars
with shorter vertically plates. The numbers and letters are completely issued
by time; Hll ddd - Lll ddd were the first in Vic. (white on black, with Vic.
on the side), then All ddd - Fll ddd (green on white, with 'Victoria - Garden
State' or 'Vic. Aust. - 1788 - 1988' in 1988 on the bottom), then Nll ddd -
Qll ddd (blue on white, with 'Victoria - On the Move' and the Victorian logo
(with crown) seperating the two secitions), then Qll ddd - whatever we're at
now (blue on white, with 'Victoria - The Place to Be' and the crownless
Victorian Logo seperating the two sections). Mll ddd are reserved for
government vehicles. TOW ddd are reserved for tow-trucks. M dddd and C dddd
(four numbers) are for metropolitan and country taxis, respectively. LL DDDD
are for buses. LL DDD are for motorbikes etc.

Cars get to keep their number plates until they need replacing because they're
unreadable, generally. Although some older cars have newly-issued plates,
whereas my mother got her car's plates replaced with the same color and
lettering of the originals (but lacking the 'toria - Garden State'). Instead,
every year you have to pay a registration fee and get a sticker you put in
your window. The fee's something like $500.

So yes... our numbers are a lot more arbitrary then yours, it seems.

(Incidentally, I was thinking of this kind of stuff the very day this thread
began. Didn't notice it until today though ;))

BTW... someone mentioned 'counties in Anglo-Saxon countries'... In Australia,
we don't have counties. I understand these to be equivalent to cities (city
councils) and shires. They're also called boroughs... What other names are
there for these things? Is there a difference (other than, as best I can
tell, cities being in more densely-populated areas and shires being in the
country). *Note: the City of Casey is a local government area. It is not a
city like Melbourne, Sydney etc. are cities.

Tristan

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