Vehicle registration plates of Australia

On all motorcycle plates, the legend is embossed at the top and state/territory.

Australian Capital Territory

New South Wales

Queensland

South Australia

Tasmania

Victoria

Western Australia

Northern Territory

From 1910 onwards all Australian plates started at number 1 and were manufactured in enamel.

Since 1936, Australian plates were to be uniform in size and use embossing in standard Australian dies, beginning with New South Wales, FCT (now ACT) and Victoria. By 1956 the remaining states and territories moved into standard Australian embossing from either stamped or enamel, standardising in dimensions of 372 mm (14.6 in) × 134 mm (5.3 in).

From 1951–52, Australian automobiles were to adopt a broad scheme across all states and territories for vehicle number plates. Both New South Wales and Victoria had previously issued plates with 2-letters, 3-digits, white on a black background. However, while implemented, this was not entirely popular as some states and territories preferred their own identity reflected on their vehicles instead. They were meant to use the following proposed scheme:

General Notes: Western Australia deemed itself too large to fit into the proposed scheme and adhered to one of its own devising; plates in the Iaa-nnn series were to be skipped (as a capital I was believed to be easily mistaken for a number 1). This allowed the two populous states with greater registrations of vehicles 6 letter-series each (New South Wales had A to F, Victoria had G to H, and J to M), and others with 3 letter-series (Queensland N, and P to Q, South Australia R to T, Western Australia was allocated U to V). Tasmania was only given one, W, due to its size, and the Australian Capital Territory Y. Z was for federal government department use Australia-wide, the 2nd letter reflecting the commonwealth department, Northern Territory had all numeric supposed to be X, . Letters I and O were deemed to be too similar to 1 and 0 and weren't part of the scheme.

However, the system to be introduced in 1951/52 was not as popular as expected: the Northern Territory refused and continued its previous all-number system. Western Australia soon adopted the scheme, taking charge of the previously NT allocated XAA-000 to XZZ-999 (WAG-000 to WAG-999 they reserved for WA Government vehicles, then extending to XZZ-999). However many WA rural shires chose to issue their own series plates, with initial letters being Shire abbreviations followed by digits, in the WA colour scheme.

All the remaining states and territories stuck to their initial allocations, until the number of registrations became too large for each state and "overflowed" into series otherwise allocated to another state. NSW overflowed from FZZ-999 to GAA-000 (otherwise issued to Victoria) in 1972, Victoria (having reserved the Maa-nnn series for state government registrations) overflowed from LZZ-999 to IAA-000 (previously skipped) in 1974, and then from IZZ-999 to AAA-000 (otherwise issued to NSW) in 1977. South Australia did similar, overflowing from SZZ-999 to UAA-000 etc. (having reserved the Taa-nnn series for trailer registrations).

All states and territories now have adopted their own new series replacing the ABC-123 series and they do not need to be allocated to the grouped allocations like it happened in the 1950s as the alpha/numerics can start from the beginning to the end of series (except Northern Territory).

Federal Interstate

Run years: 1 January 1987 to 1 July 2018

Heavy vehicles (over 4.5 tonnes GVM) can choose to participate in FIRS scheme.

FIRS plates are WX·00AA, and are green on a reflective yellow background.

FIRS plates are issued by state authorities on behalf of the Commonwealth, and carry the format as specified by the Interstate Road Transport Regulations 1986 – Reg 21.[3] Federal Interstate-registered vehicles are prohibited from undertaking intrastate journeys and can only be used for cross-border work.

The first character represents the state of issue:

• A for Australian Capital Territory
• C for Northern Territory
• N for New South Wales
• Q for Queensland
• S for South Australia
• T for Tasmania
• V for Victoria
• W for Western Australia

The second character represents the type of vehicle being registered:

• V for vehicle (typically issued to prime-movers, but are also attached to rigid vehicles such as coaches and moving trucks).
• T for trailer.
• X for extra weight, for vehicles with particular high gross vehicle or aggregate trailer masses.

The remaining characters are allocated by the issuing authorities. As most interstate transport companies are based on the East Coast, the majority of FIRS plates are registered in NSW and VIC. Some issues originate in QLD or SA, with the remaining states appearing relatively rarely.

A typical plate which might be found on a semi-trailer, registered to a company in QLD would be QT·88MW.

[4] ALL FIRS scheme plates ceased accepting renewals on 1 July 2018 and FIRS closed on 1 July 2019, after all FIRS registration expired and plates exchanged to the new National Heavy Vehicle scheme/state based registration plates.

More details are found under the Infrastructure[5] website of the Federal Government's

National Heavy Vehicle

Starting 1 July 2018, a new system was implemented in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania. Victoria joined the scheme on 1 October 2018.

Northern Territory has just started using National Heavy Vehicle Plates and abolished the rego stickers effective 1 August 2019 [6]

Western Australia is not participating, hence WA Heavy Vehicles are on state based plates.

The format now in use are:

FB-12AA in Black on white reflection base, and blue band legend with the words NATIONAL HEAVY VEHICLE imprinted on it.

XQ-12AA is for Trucks while YQ-12AA is for Trailers. In this example the prefix denotes X for Trucks and Y for Trailers and the last prefix letter is for home states/territory: XQ - Queensland, XN- New South Wales etc.

It replaced the state based general series, however not mandatory and owners can request state based personalised plates if they wish to have them. It applies to new heavy vehicles or heavy vehicle requiring replacement of state based general series plates. 4.5 GVM minimum must qualify for the new plates.

Under Part 10 of the Australian Light Vehicle Standards Rules 2015, vehicles powered by fuels other than petrol (collectively alternative fuel systems) must always display a specific plate that is affixed to both the front and rear license plates.[7] These labels exist to assist emergency services personnel in responding to potential hazards involving such vehicles. Generally, such labels are applied permanently to the registration plate by way of pot rivets or other mechantical fixtures.

The standards were updated in March 2019, to add standards for Hydrogen and electric powered vehicles.[8]

Note: LPG, LNG or CNG vehicles with more than one tank of that type are required to have one additional diamond attached to the front and back license plates.[7]

Hydrogen or electric powered vehicles built or converted before 1 January 2019 are still subject to relevant state-based standards for their labeling. For example, in Victoria since 2009, such hybrid electric vehicles must display a green diamond sticker with the word "Hybrid" written in white letters.[9]