Date and time notation in Australia
| Full date | 30 May 2025 |
|---|---|
| All-numeric date | 30/05/2025 |
| Time | 5:40 pm |
Date and time notation in Australia most commonly records the date using the day-month-year format (30 May 2025) and with the 12-hour clock (5:40 pm).
Date
Australians typically write the date with the day leading, as in the United Kingdom and New Zealand:
- 30 May 2025
- 30/05/2025
When using the short form. the first two digits of the year are often omitted in everyday use and on forms.
The month–day–year order (May 30, 2025) is sometimes used, often 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 rarely used.
The ISO 8601 date format (2025-05-30) is recommended by the government to be used when communicating internationally.[3] It is also commonly used in software.
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.[citation needed]
Time
The Australian government recommends using the 12-hour clock (5:40 pm), except where the 24-hour clock is more helpful in the context, such as in travel, scientific fields and the military.[3] The government also recommends a colon as the separator, however the single period is still used in some contexts.[3] They also suggest writing the noon/after noon qualifier as "am" or "pm" in lower-case without periods.[3]
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.
- ^ a b c d "Dates and time". Australian Government Style Manual. 17 October 2023.
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