| Full date | 18 April 2024 |
|---|---|
| All-numeric date | 18/04/2024 |
| Time | 2:27 pm |
Date and time notation in Australia most commonly records the date using the day-month-year format (18 April 2024) and with the 12-hour clock (2:27 pm).
Australians typically write the date with the day leading, as in the United Kingdom and New Zealand:
The month–day–year order (April 18, 2024) is sometimes used, often in the mastheads of magazines, schools, newspapers,[1][2] advertisements, video games, news, and TV shows. MDY in numeric-only form (04/18/2024) is rarely used.
The ISO 8601 date format (2024-04-18) is recommended by the government to be used when communicating internationally.[3] It is also commonly used in software.
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. 2024-W16) is not widely understood.[citation needed] Some more traditional calendars instead treat Sunday as the first day of the week.[citation needed]
The Australian government recommends using the 12-hour clock (2:27 pm), except where the 24-hour clock is more helpful in the context, such as in travel, scientific fields and the military.[3] The government also recommends a colon as the separator, however the single period is still used in some contexts.[3] They also suggest writing the noon/after noon qualifier as "am" or "pm" in lower-case without periods.[3]