Australia (AUS)

This section defines the supported geocoding datasets, operations, and input and output field information for Australia.

Supported Geocoding Datasets

The following table lists the supported geocoding dataset(s) with the available geocoding levels for Australia.

Note: Custom User Dictionaries are supported.

Geocoding Dataset	City Centroid	Suburb/Village Centroid	Postal Centroid	Street Centroid	Interpolated Street Address	Point-level Address	Point of Interest
AUS Standard	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
PMSA GNAF English	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Supported Operations

The following operations are supported for Australia:

Geocoding—Takes one or more addresses as input and returns latitude/longitude coordinates and other information.
Reverse Geocoding—Takes one or more latitude and longitude coordinates as input and returns the address of the location.
Interactive Geocoding— Returns potential match candidates as the adddress is typed in.
Global Key Lookup—Returns geocode candidates when given a unique key as input. USA MLD and AUS GNAF data only.

Input Fields

Australian addresses may contain some or all of the following address elements.

Parameter	Type	Description
placeName	String	Specifies the building name, place name, Point of Interest (POI), company or firm name associated with the input address. Optional.
mainAddress	String	Single Line Input—If no other address field is populated, then the mainAddress entry will be treated as a single line input. Single line input can consist of multiple input address fields ; these should be entered in the typical address order for the country. For more details, refer to the section "Single Line Input" below. Street Address—If the post address components (city, postalCode, etc.) are provided separately or in the lastLine field, then the contents of mainAddress will be treated as the street address part and can include company name, house number, building names and street names. Optional. Street Intersection Input—To enter an intersection, specify the two street names separated by a double ampersand (&&).
lastLine	String	The last line of the address. Optional. For example: 4360 Dukes Rd. Kalgoorlie WA 6430
areaName1	String	Specifies the state or territory. Optional.
areaName2	String	The Local Government Authority (LGA). Optional.
areaName3	String	Specifies a town or suburb.
areaName4	String	Not used.
postalCode	String	Australia uses a four-digit postal code system. In general, the first digit represents a state or territory, the second digit represents a region with a state, and digits three and four representing towns.
country	String	The three-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code. For Australia, the country code is AUS. Required for forward geocoding.

Address Guidelines for Australia

Follow these suggestions to ensure that your input address data is in the best format possible for optimum matching and geocoding. For additional information on Australia addresses, see the Australia Post website: www.auspost.com.au.

Required fields—Addresses must contain either a city or a postal code.
House numbers and unit information—The house number pinpoints the location of the address. Unit input can be in one of two formats, as shown in the following examples:
- Apt 99, 123 Main St., where Apt is the unit type and 99 is the unit number. In this format, you must specify a valid unit type, otherwise the address will not be geocoded correctly. For a listing of valid unit types, see www.auspost.com.au.
- 99-123 Main St. For an address derived from the GNAF database, this address is a unique house number and is geocoded as a single delivery point, not as a range.
Directional suffixes—Use directional suffixes wherever possible. This is especially true in towns and cities that consist mainly of numbered streets. These streets can only be distinguished by their directional suffixes and street types. They also distinguish addresses on streets that change direction. For example: 123 Queen St W and 123 Queen St E would have very different coordinates.
Street types—These distinguish different streets of the same name. For example, Main Avenue and Main Street are two entirely different entities. Using types is not essential, but it adds precision to your data. For a listing of street types, see www.auspost.com.au.
City/suburb name—Enter the city/suburb name in the areaName3 field. Note that all input addresses must contain either a city or a postal code. If the geocoder does not make a match on the street in the specified suburb, it can make a match on the Local Government Area (LGA). Local Government Area (LGAs) do not encompass all of Australia. For example, LGAs do not cover extensive northern parts of South Australia, a large part of the Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory. An LGA can include a number of official suburbs. It is best to use the suburb name for geocoding purposes, but it is possible to get a match on the LGA (or to return LGA information) in geocoded results.

Postal code—All postcodes consist of four digits. While there are exceptions, the general format of postcodes is as follows:

Note: These are general guidelines, and there are exceptions to these postcode number ranges.

Digit 1 represents the state or territory, within the following general conventions:

2	NSW
2600 and 2900	ACT
3	VIC
4	QLD
5	SA
6	WA
7	TAS
0	NT

Digit 2 represents a region within the state. State or territorial capitals usually have a 0 or 1 as the second digit.
Digits 3 and 4 represent towns. Major towns usually have a 0 as the last digit (or sometimes as the last two digits).

Address Range Input

Street range data represents a range of house numbers that can possibly exist but are not guaranteed to exist. For addresses derived from the Street Range Address database, house number matching is more relaxed compared to the GNAF database. Also, the candidate house number may be changed based on how the input house number matches the suffix/range data.

The following table shows geocoding match results with house number ranges from a Street range data source:

Input House Number	Candidate House Number Range	Candidate House Number	Match or Non-Match
10	10-12	10	Match
10A	10-12	10	Match
10	8-12	10	Match
10-14	10-12	10	Match
10-14	10-20	10-14	Match
10	12-16	12	Non-Match

GNAF Range Address Matching

Australian addresses originating from the GNAF database may contain house number ranges, but these records still represent single address delivery points. These range addresses may also have alphabetic suffixes. For example, the following house address numbers each represent a single address. GNAF suffix address matching GNAF range address matching

10-12 10A-10C 10-10A

The Spectrum™ Technology Platform validates and geocodes these point source addresses. If the criteria are met and the reliability of the match is 1 or 2, the Spectrum™ Technology Platform returns point matches with an S8 result code.

If a complete house number range/suffix is specified for input, candidates from a point data source must be fully matched. If partial house number information is given (without complete range or suffix information), then candidates with non-conflicting range/suffix information (or no range/suffix information) will match.

The following table shows geocoding match results with house number ranges from a point data source (GNAF database.). The matching rules are based on the Address Matching Approval System (AMAS^®) developed by Australia Post.

Input House Number	Data House Number	Candidate House Number	Match or Non-Match
10	10A	10A	Match: Input number 10 matches 10A (or 10 with any suffix).
10A	10	10	Match: Input number 10 matches.
10C	10A	10A	Non-Match: Input suffix does not match the data suffix.
10	10-12	10-12	Match: Input number 10 matches the first number of the dashed data range.
12	10-12	10-12	Match: Input number 12 matches the last number of the dashed data range.
10A	10-12	10-12	Match: Input number 10 matches the first number of the dashed data range. Input suffix is not in data, but this does not affect matching.
12	10-14	10-14	Non-Match. Input number 12 does not match either number of the dashed data range. No interpolation is performed on a house number ranges.
10-12	10-14	10-14	Match: First input number 10 matches the first number of the data and the second number 12 is within the data range.
10-12	10A-14A	10A-14A	Match: The input has no suffix information, but the input number 10 matches.
10-16	10-12	10-12	Non-Match: Input second number 16 is outside the 10-12 data range.
10-13	10-14	10-14	Non-Match: Both input numbers are within data range, but second number (13) is odd and this does not match with the even range of 10-14.
10-13	10-15	10-15	Match: Data range (10-15) suggests a mixed odd/even range, so input is matched.
RMB 10	10	10	Match: Input number matches
16	A16	A16	Match: Input number matches
RMB 10	A10	A10	Non-Match: Input suffix does not match the data suffix.

Specifying Unit Information in an Address

When you use the GNAF database, the geocoder recognizes several formats of unit types (such as unit, suite, floor, and flat address prefix) in an address, as illustrated below:

"Unit 5 6 Macleay Street"—Full unit description used in conjunction with unit value and address number.
"U 5 6 Macleay Street"—Abbreviated unit description used in conjunction with unit value and address number.
"5/6 Macleay Street"—No Unit abbreviation with unit number and address number separated by a forward slash notation.

Exact matches on unit and address are placed first in the list of returned candidates.

Specifying Level Information in an Address

If you use the GNAF database the geocoder can return level information for some addresses. Level information identifies the floor or level of a multi-storey building. The GNAF database includes level information for some Australian states. Level information may be associated with unit information, but not necessarily. If the GNAF database contains multiple records with the same level, the level information is returned only if the input address contains unique content (such as a unit number).

If the GNAF database has level information for an address, the geocoder returns that information with the matched candidate. The correct level information is returned (when available) even if the input address did not include level information, or if the input had the wrong level information.

If the input address has level information but the GNAF database does not include level information for the matching address, then the input level information is discarded since it is not validated in the GNAF data.

Following are several examples of partial addresses that contain level information. The level component is indicated in bold.

Suite 3 Level 7, 17 Jones Street (Suite 3 is a unit)

Floor 2, 17 Jones Street

Level 7, 17-19 Middleborough Road

Single Line Input

Instead of entering each address element in separate fields, you can enter the entire address in the mainAddress input field.

[unit_info][level_info][address_number][street_info][area_name_3][area_name_1][post_code]

Where:

[unit_info][level_info][address_number] are optional.
[street_info] consists of the street name, street type and any pre- or post-directional information (e.g. East, West, etc.).
[area_name_3] is the city.
[area_name_1] is the state or territory.
[postal_code] is the postal code.

For best results, put a comma between street information and the lastline (e.g. city and postal) information.

Custom Options

The following table lists the options that are unique for Australia. These custom fields are optional, and unless otherwise noted, they are available for both Geocoding and Reverse Geocoding.

For the standard set of options available to all countries and their definitions, see the chapters covering Geocode Service and Reverse Geocode Service.

Option Name	Description
KEY_STREET_FRONTAGE	When set to true, requests GNAF street frontage points. Default = false.
KEY_GNAF_ORIGINAL	When set to true, returns the GNAF original point coordinates. Default = false.
KEY_POSTAL_CODE_OVERRIDE	When set to true, a matching postal code will match even if the city/suburb does not match. Default = false.
KEY_RETURN_STREET_TYPE_ABBREVS	When set to true, returns the abbreviated street types instead of the Australia default of fully spelled-out type. Default = false.
USE_ADDRESS_POINT_INTERPOLATION	When set to true, enables address point interpolation. Default = false. Supported only in forward geocoding. Note: The address point interpolation feature requires that you have a point-level geocoding dataset installed.
USE_CENTERLINE_OFFSET	When set to true, calculates the centerline offset for point addresses. Default = false. Supported only in forward geocoding. Note: The centerline feature requires that you have a point-level geocoding dataset installed. A centerline point match is indicated by a result code beginning with SC.
CENTERLINE_OFFSET	When USE_CENTERLINE_OFFSET is enabled, this specifies the distance to offset the point from centerline. Default = 0. Supported in forward geocoding only.
CENTERLINE_OFFSET_UNIT	When USE_CENTERLINE_OFFSET is enabled, this specifies the unit type for the centerline offset. Valid values = feet, meters. Default = meters. Supported only in forward geocoding.

Output Fields

The following table lists the address fields returned for a candidate located in Australia.

Note: The placeName, addressNumber, unitType and unitValue field values are only returned when a geocoding dataset that supports street address interpolation is installed.

Field Name	Description
mainAddressLine	The street address which may include company name, house number, building names and street names.
addressLastLine	The last line of the address.
placeName	The building name, place name, Point of Interest (POI), company or firm name associated with the address.
areaName1	The state.
areaName2	The Local Government Authority (LGA) name.
areaName3	The town, suburb or locality.
areaName4	Not used.
postCode1	Postcode.
postCode2	Not used.
country	The three-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code. For Australia, the country code is AUS.
addressNumber	The address number.
streetName	The street or road name.
unitType	The unit type such as APT, STE, etc.
unitValue	The unit value/number, such as "3B".
customFields	See the following section for the custom field definitions.

Custom Output Fields

The following table lists the output fields that are unique for Australia. Unless otherwise noted, these fields can be returned for both forward and reverse geocoding.

Field	Description
STREET_TYPE_ABB	The abbreviation for the street type, which is spelled out by default.
ORIGINAL_LATITUDE	The original GNAF latitude.
ORIGINAL_LONGITUDE	The original GNAF longitude.
UD_ORIGINAL_LATITUDE	The original latitude returned from a point-based user dictionary.
UD_ORIGINAL_LONGITUDE	The original longitude returned from a point-based user dictionary.
GNAF_PARCEL_ID	The GNAF parcel identifier.
GNAF_PID	The GNAF Persistent Identifier (GNAF PID) is a 14-character alphanumeric string that uniquely identifies each GNAF address. The PID is constructed from a combination of the major address fields of the GNAF Dictionary. An example of a GNAF PID is: GAACT718519668
GNAF_PRINCIPAL_PID	The Persistent Identifier of the principal address.
GEOCONTAINMENT	This specifies whether the returned coordinates are inside or outside the address boundary. Values are YES for coordinates within, or NO for coordinates outside the boundary.
GEOFEATURE	This field returns a geocode feature type if that was not provided in other GNAF fields. GEOFEATURE corresponds to Geocode Types (GEOCODE_TYPE_AUT Codes) that are described in the PSMA Data Product Description Version 2.7 (Aug. 2012).
GNAF_ADDRESS_CLASS	The GNAF address classification.
GNAF_SA1	The GNAF Statistical Area Level 1 (SA1) identifier.
LEVEL_NUMBER	The number of a floor or level in a multistory building. For example, Floor 2, 17 Jones Street The GNAF database includes level information for some Australian states. Level information may be associated with unit information, but not necessarily. If the GNAF database contains multiple records with the same level, the level information is returned only if the input address contains unique content (such as a unit number). If the GNAF dictionary has level information for an address, that information is returned with the matched candidate. The correct level information is returned (when available) even if the input address did not include level information, or if the input had the wrong level information. If the input address has level information but the GNAF database does not include level information for the matching address, then the input level information is discarded since it is not validated in the GNAF data.
LEVEL_TYPE	The label used for a floor of a multistory building. For example, "Level" or "Floor". In this example, the level type is "Level": Suite 3 Level 7, 17 Jones Street In this example, Suite 3 is a unit.
LOT_NUMBER	Lot numbers are returned for GNAF candidates because some rural addresses do not have adequate physical or house number information.
MESH_BLOCK_ID	A Meshblock is the smallest geographic unit for which statistical data is collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Meshblocks usually contain a minimum of 20 to 50 households. This is about one fifth the size of a Collection District (CD). You can use the Meshblock ID to do additional attributions against your own data.