Australia: plugs, voltage, currency, time & travel facts

Plugs and voltage

Australia uses Type I sockets. Mains supply is 230 V at 50 Hz.

At 230 V, devices made only for 100–127 V (many American and Japanese hair dryers, curling irons and some shavers) will be damaged without a step-down converter. Chargers labelled “100–240V” work fine with just a plug adapter.

Adapter guides: from United States · from United Kingdom · from Canada · from India · from Germany · from China · from Ireland · from New Zealand · from South Africa · from Japan · from South Korea · from Philippines · from Singapore · from Malaysia

Money

$ Australian Dollar AUD

Reference rates, 2026-10-30 (ECB)
1 USD	1.42 AUD
1 EUR	1.59 AUD
1 GBP	1.91 AUD
1 JPY	0.009053 AUD

Australian Dollar: where it's used and rates

Price level 94 (US = 100, 2025)

Everyday household prices in Australia are about 94% of US prices when converted at market exchange rates: dearer than the median country (50). All countries

Language

Englishde facto official96%

Bars show the share of the population that speaks each language (CLDR estimates).

Time

Australia spans 6 time offsets right now:

– UTC+8 Australia / Perth
– UTC+8:45 Australia / Eucla
– UTC+9:30 Australia / Darwin
– UTC+10 Australia / Brisbane, Australia / Lindeman
– UTC+10:30 DST Australia / Broken Hill, Australia / Adelaide
– UTC+11 DST Australia / Lord Howe, Antarctica / Macquarie, Australia / Hobart…

The capital is on UTC+11 (Australia/Sydney).

Driving

Traffic in Australia drives on the left, so the steering wheel is on the right. All left-driving countries

Public holidays in the next 12 months

7 national public holidays from 2 November 2026. Banks, offices and many shops close; regional holidays are not shown. Dates marked “estimated” follow a lunar calendar and can move by a day.