date and time notation in Australia

Australians typically write the date with the day leading, as in the United Kingdom and in New Zealand:

• {{time|df=dmy|dateonly=yes|hide-refresh=yes|hide-tz=yes|AEST|dst=yes}}
• {{time|AEST|dst=yes|df-cust=d/m/Y|dateonly=yes|hide-refresh=yes|hide-tz=yes}}

The month–day–year order ({{time|df=mdy|dateonly=yes|hide-refresh=yes|hide-tz=yes|AEST|dst=yes}}) is sometimes used, often in the mastheads of magazines, schools, newspapers,{{cite web |url=http://www.newscorpaustralia.com/news |title=Latest News |work=News Corp Australia |access-date=4 November 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171104025041/http://www.newscorpaustralia.com/news |archive-date=4 November 2017}}{{cite web |url=http://enewspaper2.smedia.com.au/wandemo/ |title=The West Australian Demo |work=The West Australian |date=16 August 2016 |access-date=4 November 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901045345/http://enewspaper2.smedia.com.au/wandemo/ |archive-date=1 September 2017}} advertisements, video games, news, and TV shows. Month–day–year in numeric-only form ({{time|AEST|dst=yes|df-cust=m/d/Y|dateonly=yes|hide-refresh=yes|hide-tz=yes}}) is rarely used.

The ISO 8601 date format ({{time|df=iso|dateonly=yes|hide-refresh=yes|hide-tz=yes|AEST|dst=yes}}) is recommended by the government to be used when communicating internationally.{{Cite web |date=17 October 2023 |title=Dates and time |url=https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conventions/numbers-and-measurements/dates-and-time |website=Australian Government Style Manual}} It is also commonly used in software.

The Australian government identifies Monday as the first day of the week,{{Cite web |date=28 March 2024 |title=Dates and time |url=https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conventions/numbers-and-measurements/dates-and-time |access-date=27 April 2024 |website=Australian Government Style Manual}} which is consistent with the Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR) since its October 2021 release.{{Cite web |date=27 October 2021 |title=Unicode CLDR - CLDR 40 Release Note |url=https://cldr.unicode.org/index/downloads/cldr-40 |access-date=24 April 2024 |website=cldr.unicode.org |language=en-US}} However, there is disagreement among the general population over whether Monday or Sunday is the first day of the week.{{Cite news |last=Lyons |first=Gabrielle |date=17 August 2019 |title=Sunday Vs Monday: Which day do you consider the start of the week? |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-18/which-day-do-you-consider-the-start-of-the-week/11346348 |access-date=24 April 2024 |work=ABC News |language=en-AU}}

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. {{#time: o-"W"W}}) is not widely understood.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}

The Australian government recommends using the 12-hour clock ({{time|df=12|hide-refresh=yes|hide-tz=yes|AEST|dst=yes}}), except where the 24-hour clock is more helpful in the context, such as in travel, scientific fields and the military. The government also recommends a colon as the separator; however, the full stop is still used in some contexts. They also suggest writing the noon/after noon qualifier as "am" or "pm" in lower case without a full stop.

{{reflist}}

{{Oceania topic|Date and time notation in}}

Category:Time in Australia

Australia

{{australia-stub}}