The Australian telephone numbering plan defines how phone numbers are formatted, dialled and allocated across the country. It is administered to support geographic landlines, mobile services and a range of non-geographic numbers used for freephone, local-rate and premium services. The plan uses a national trunk prefix and an international country code, and was significantly restructured during the 1990s.

Format and prefixes

Australia's international country code is +61. When calling from outside Australia you replace the leading national trunk digit 0 with +61. For example, a Sydney landline may appear as 02 9123 4567 when dialled within Australia, and as +61 2 9123 4567 from overseas. The most common international dialling prefix used inside Australia to call abroad is 0011. The trunk prefix for domestic long-distance calls is 0.

Major number types

  • Geographic (landline): numbers begin with an area code digit (02, 03, 07, 08) followed by an eight-digit subscriber number.
  • Mobile: mobile numbers typically begin with 04 and are ten digits in total (for example, 0412 345 678).
  • Freephone and local-rate: 1800 numbers are free for callers; 13 and 1300 numbers provide national reach with local or shared-cost charging.
  • Premium-rate: 19xx numbers are charged at higher rates for special services.
  • Emergency and accessibility: the main emergency number is 000; mobile phones also recognise 112. A dedicated TTY relay number for people with hearing or speech impairment exists.

Geographic area codes broadly map to states and territories: 02 covers New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory; 03 covers Victoria and Tasmania; 07 is for Queensland; and 08 serves Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. These area codes are followed by an eight-digit local number, producing a ten-digit national format when the leading 0 is included.

The numbering plan and its allocations are described in more detail by the national regulator and industry documents; see the Australian numbering plan for authoritative information about current ranges, rules and reserved numbers.

Historical reforms in the 1990s reorganised many ranges and introduced the current common formats for mobile and non-geographic services. Since then the system has evolved to allow number portability (customers keeping numbers when changing providers), to support new services, and to adapt to increased demand for mobile and data-capable connections. For everyday use, remember: dial the full area code for national long-distance calls, omit the leading 0 when using +61 from abroad, and use 000 (or 112 on GSM) in emergencies.