A friend has moved to Australia and written me with her address,but no zip code. I would likew to write her. In the US I have asked my local post office,but they do not have this info. Is there any website that would give this info? Or any Australian or person with that info??
Thanks!

Brisbane city postcode is 4000 but would need to have complete address for correct postcode. Do you have name of suburb or town?

If you tried a web search the problem would be that, as Pat's post indicates, they're not called ZIP codes in Australia (or anywhere else outside the US, I think) but postcodes. Go to www.auspost.com.au and click on 'Post code search' in the sidebar at left.

If you can't locate the post code it's not really critical - as long as you have the address spelled correctly it will get delivered.

Thank you. I have learned something new about post codes. I tried the website,but so many listings. It is good to know it will be delivered if I put 4000.
Pat, the section of the city is Everton. So do you know that area post code? It is amazing to have people try to help you so quickly.

That'd be Everton Park or Everton Hill, postcode 4053. As Neil says, its not really critical as long as you use state, in this case Queensland. There is another Everton in the state of Victoria.

Post code for Everton Park is 4053.
Regards
Stormer

Maryanne, the other day I saw a thread about ZIP codes on the US forum and learned more than I actually needed to know about the subject (one poster said "thanks for helping me with my insomnia&quot. I discovered that it stands for Zone Improvement Program. I think that in most countries they're just called post, or postal, codes.

My prize for the least straightforward system is jointly shared by the UK and Canada, who each use a mess of alpha and numeric characters.

Pat - you and I have posted simultaneously again - we both must have a bit of e.s.p. I think.

Thanks again . This letter will be in the mail tomorrow. I was fortunate to meet this friend in Phuket, Thailand and she has moved back to her native Australia only recently. Wish I could get down there one of these days.
You would never get a letter in the US without that postal code.

Maryanne1, another really useful website is www.whitepages.com.au

You can put in any town/suburb and it will give you the postcode and vice versa. Also very good for giving local times if you wish to ring your friend.

The UK system may win no prizes from Neil - but I think it's designed to do things differently.

A postcode in an inner city suburb in Australia could easily cover 1000 addresses. A postcode in inner London identifies, off the top of my head, somewhere between 50-100.

A rural postcode in Australia (say in far west NSW, or QLD, or pretty much anywere in WA outside the SW corner) might cover an area equivalent to three or four small counties in the SE of England - and a population count/dwellings count of ????.

Postcodes feature largely in my work and it's a big bugbear that one postcode can cover many suburbs, and sometimes one suburb can have many postcodes, and sometimes they cross state boundaries.

But they are endlessly fascinating. And a real plus as a geography lesson.

Stormbird, yes, we've done it again. Must sit down for our coffee fixes at the same time.

Thanks for clearing that up fuzzylogic, that mixture of numerals and letters in Canadian and English codes drives me nuts, especially when transcribing from handwriting, when an S looks like a 5, etc. Now, even I can see the logic.

Hey Neil,

I'm back from the China board and here you are slagging our Canadian postal codes!!! ;-)

If you were to send me a letter with the address Lin - Canada and my postal code it would get to me from Oz. I am rural. In the city the postal codes are very address specific. One code for one or two streets, sometimes different codes on different sides of the same street. Even in the city, with a surname, postal code and a mailman that's helpful the letter would likely arrive!

Pat: The Cdn postal codes are always 'letter-number-letter number-letter-number' That will help you figure whether what you are seeing is an 's' or a '5'

Neil:
Thanks for China the help I think I have the basics of my trip in my head.

Working on NZ now.

Cheers,
Lin

Lin, here I was thinking that the Canadian system was introduced out of nostalgia for the Mother Country, a bit like New Zealand adopting the British dot-co rather than dot-com in internet addresses. Mea culpa!