Date and time notation in Australia
| Full date | 30 May 2025 |
|---|---|
| All-numeric date | 2025-05-30 30/05/2025 |
| Time | 02:57 2:57 am |
Date and time notation in Australia most commonly records the date using the day-month-year format (30 May 2025), while the ISO 8601 format (2025-05-30) is increasingly used for all-numeric dates. The time can be written using either the 12-hour clock (2:57 am) or the 24-hour clock (02:57).
Date
Australians typically write the date with the day leading, as in the United Kingdom and New Zealand:
- 30 May 2025
- 2025-05-30 or 30/05/2025
The month–day–year order (May 30, 2025) is sometimes used, usually informally in the mastheads of magazines, schools, newspapers,[1][2] advertisements, video games, News, and TV shows. MDY in numeric-only form (05/30/2025) is never used.
The ISO 8601 date format (2025-05-30) is the recommended short date format for government publications.[3] The first two digits of the year are often omitted in everyday use and on forms (30/05/25).
Weeks are most identified by the last day of the week, either the Friday in business (e.g., "week ending 19/1") or the Sunday in other use (e.g., "week ending 21/1"). Week ending is often abbreviated to "W/E" or "W.E." The first day of the week or the day of an event are sometimes referred to (e.g., "week of 15/1"). Week numbers (as in "the third week of 2007") are not often used, but may appear in some business diaries in numeral-only form (e.g., "3" at the top or bottom of the page). ISO 8601 week notation (e.g. 2025-W22) is not widely understood.[citation needed] Some more traditional calendars instead treat Sunday as the first day of the week.
Time
The Australian government allows writing the time using either the 24-hour clock (02:57), which is commonplace in technical fields such as military, aviation, computing, navigation, and the sciences; or the 12-hour clock (2:57 am). The before noon/after noon qualifier is usually written as "am" or "pm". A colon is the preferred time separator.[4]
References
- ^ "Latest News". News Corp Australia. Archived from the original on 4 November 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ "The West Australian Demo". The West Australian. 16 August 2016. Archived from the original on 1 September 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ Style manual for authors, editors and printers (6 ed.). John Wiley & Sons Australia. 2002. p. 171. ISBN 978-0-7016-3647-0.
- ^ "Numbers and measurement". GOV.AU Content Guide. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
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