Check official place names and style them correctly

Using official Australian place names helps us all communicate more clearly. You can check the spelling of a place name using the Australian Place Names dataset.

If still unsure, contact the relevant state or territory naming authority. You can click on the government logos in the search results from the dataset. They will take you to the jurisdictional webpage.

Official place names are generally given under Acts of parliament and associated rules. Each state and territory has its own legal and administrative processes.

National principles for naming are intended to provide consistency across the country. This helps ensure that wherever we go in Australia, we find names are chosen and spelt in a common way.

Place names reflect culture at various points throughout history. Because of this reality, there may appear to be exceptions to the general rules given in this guide.

There are many First Nations naming systems across Australia. These were in place before the official national system and continue today.

Many names from First Nations languages have become official names, used by all Australians. There are also many that have not. Consult directly with relevant communities about conventions for naming and spelling in specific First Nations languages.

Spelling and capitalisation

Australian place names are proper nouns, written using standard Australian English. Place names:

• use a standard 26 character alphabet
• don’t use diacritical marks
• are not possessive
• don’t generally have punctuation.

Some Australian place names stem from other languages. Spelling and capitalisation can change when they’re adopted as an official Australian place name. For example, the official spelling:

• loses any accent marks or diacritics
• adds capitalisation.

Punctuation

Hyphens and apostrophes can be part of an official name. They appear if they were part of the name of the person commemorated by the place name.

Australian places have official names derived from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. Some places have official dual names from those languages and English.

When writing official dual names, use a spaced forward slash to separate the 2 parts of the name. The order should be as written in the official name, which you can check in the Australian Place Names dataset.

Some official Tasmanian place names do not follow the convention of using initial capitals for proper nouns.

Use capitals for names of places, roads and streets

Words that don’t usually need an initial capital have one when they are part of a place name.

The names of roads, streets and other thoroughfares also take an initial capital.

This is a similar rule to style for proper names of mountains, valleys, bays, islands and other topographic features.

Use shortened forms for addresses

Addresses usually have abbreviations and contractions. Do not add punctuation marks to these.

Common abbreviations include:

• Av (Avenue)
• Cct (Circuit)
• Cr (Crescent)
• Ct (Court)
• Dr (Drive)
• Esp (Esplanade)
• Gr (Grove)
• Hts (Heights)
• Hwy (Highway)
• Pde (Parade)
• Pl (Place)
• Rd (Road)
• St (Street)
• Tce (Terrace).

Shortened state and territory names for addresses

When addressing a letter, write the last line in capitals without punctuation or underlining, with the postcode last. The last line should contain the place name or post office of delivery, state or territory abbreviation and postcode. 

If you are sending mail overseas, spell out all names in the address in full to avoid confusion.

Write the names of buildings, structures and public places with an initial capital

Names of buildings, structures and public places have initial capitals. Write generic and plural terms in lower case.

Use initial capitals for the names of private properties. 

Shorten names for states and territories in 4 situations

Spell out the names of Australian states and territories in formal content.

You can use shortened forms when:

• the name is used as an adjective
• space is limited
• the full name would result in repetition
• you are writing an address.

Don’t use a full stop after the shortened forms. This rule applies to the initialisms (NSW, WA, ACT and NT), abbreviations (Vic and Tas) and the contraction (Qld).

States and territories are generally listed in an order when more than one is mentioned. For example:

• in alphabetical order (ACT to WA)
• by population size (NSW to NT).

Other orders might be more suitable for some content. For example, content might include a list of states and territories ordered by total annual rainfall or number of enrolled voters. Use the order that fits with context and helps people understand your content.