Abbreviations and Acronyms View history

This page has just been moved from the old Australian Wiki in the last few days.
Links are still being updated.
Please go to the Australia Forum and start a topic with "Wiki: Abbreviations and Acronyms" to discuss before making changes to this page.

PLEASE SEE:

This page is to be used for abbreviations in Australia. It takes precedence over the Abbreviations and Acronyms page in the Global Wazeopedia.

State abbreviations

Currently, the State field is not set for use in Australia. Where a state or territory abbreviation is required to distinguish between the same suburb (city) name in two different states, only the following abbreviations should be used, with the specified capitalisation.

State/territory name Standard abbreviation
Australian Capital Territory ACT
New South Wales NSW
Northern Territory NT
Queensland Qld
South Australia SA
Tasmania Tas
Victoria Vic
Western Australia WA

Do not use fullstops afterwards (e.g. Qld.) or inside (e.g. N.S.W.) these abbreviations. Note the use of conventional (mixed-case) capitalisation (e.g. Tas).

Measurement Suffix Abbreviations

Suffix name Standard abbreviation
Kilometre/ kilometer km
Metre/ meter m

Standard Suffix Abbreviations

Notes:

1. Only abbreviate suffixes ("road types").

  • "The Avenue", "The Green ", and etc. should not be abbreviated.
  • "Circuit Avenue Road" would be abbreviated to Circuit Avenue Rd and not "Cct Ave Rd"
  • A road named "Service way" should not be abbreviated, while "Pipeline Service way" should be.

2. Suffix abbreviations do not contain any punctuation, such as "." (Full-stops) or "-" (Hyphens).

3. In the event that the original suffix is a plural (i.e contains a "s" at the end) and only its singular form is present as an abbreviation, simply add an "s" to the end of the abbreviation.

4. If no abbreviation is given in this table, then spell out the word in full.

5. This list of abbreviations is based on AS/NZS 4819:2011, Rural and Urban Addressing

Suffix name Standard abbreviation Comment
Alley Ally
Approach App
Arcade Arc
Avenue Av Ave appears in many places due to use by Australia Post
Boardwalk Bwlk
Boulevard Bvd
Break Brk
Bypass Bypa
Chase Ch
Circuit Cct
Close Cl
Concourse Con
Court Ct
Crescent Cr Cres appears in many places due to use by Australia Post
Crest Crst
Drive Dr
Entrance Ent
Esplanade Esp
Expressway Exp
Firetrail Ftrl
Freeway Fwy
Glade Glde
Grange Gra
Grove Gr
Highway Hwy
Motorway Mwy
Parade Pde
Parkway Pwy
Passage Psge
Place Pl
Plaza Plza
Promenade Prom
Quays Qys
Retreat Rtt
Ridge Rdge
Road Rd
Square Sq
Steps Stps
Street St
Subway Sbwy
Terrace Tce
Track Trk
Trail Trl
Vista Vsta

Other Abbreviations

Prefixes, directional abbreviations and other (non-suffix) abbreviations should not be used, except for state/ territory abbreviations & country abbreviations; under ISO 3166-1 alpha-3.

1. Prefix abbreviations such as Mount (Mt.) Note: Mount (Mt.) is not the same as Mountain (Mtn.).

  • Although they are common, can cause issues as variation and overlap exists between naming, usage, and prefix standards (I.e. what words to, and how to, abbreviate).
  • Therefore a watercourse named "River Torrens" would not be abbreviated, while if its documented name was "Torrens River" it would be.
  • "St " at the start of a suburb name is part of the legal name. It should not be expanded to "Saint".
  • "St " (meaning "Saint") as part of the street or city name should be shown as "St. " with the trailing full stop to cause it to be correctly pronounced by the TTS.

2. Directional abbreviations include: East (E), South West (SW), Central (CN), Upper (UP), and Lower (LR).

  • These abbreviations should not be abbreviated.
  • In addition to not being abbreviated, directions should only be included when they are a part of the documented name, and not a suffix or prefix added at a later stage to describe location or orientation/ direction.
  • The street type should still be abbreviated e.g. "Smith Rd East" is correct; "Smith Road East" or "Smith Rd E" are not.

3. Other abbreviations include: Island (Is.), Quay (Qy), Reserve (Res) and Tunnel (Tunl).

  • These are acceptable to be used when they are a suffix, but not acceptable when they are place names.
  • Therefore "King-Tunnel Road" should have tunnel spelt in full, as it refers to a tunnel. While "Queen Tunnel-Road" could have tunnel abbreviated, as tunnel refers to the type of roadway, and is a part of the suffix.
  • Likewise an Island named "Island Island" would be abbreviated to Island Is.

Further Reading

Please refer to the following Waze forum for a "Work in progress" list of abbreviations that are being tested, currently available, and proposed:

http://www.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=15178