Vehicle registration plates of New South Wales


The Australian state of New South Wales requires its residents to register their motor vehicles and display vehicle registration plates. Current regular issue plates are to the standard Australian dimensions of in length by in height, and use standard Australian serial dies.

Issuing authorities

Standalone departments/agencies:
Cars and Heavy Vehicles
From 1910 to 1937, serials on registration plates for cars were all-numeric, running from 1 to 274-000, while serials on plates for lorries consisted of the letter L followed by up to five numbers. All plates from 1910 to 1924 consisted of black characters on a white background, with the state abbreviation added in 1912. In 1924, the colour scheme for car plates was reversed, so that they consisted of white characters on a black background.
In 1937, a new serial format was adopted for both cars and lorries, consisting of two letters followed by three numbers, with leading zeros as necessary. This ran from AA-000 to ZZ-999, with the letters I and Q omitted to avoid confusion with the numbers 1 and 0 and the letter O. Plates for both vehicle types consisted of white characters on a black background.
When the two-letter serials were exhausted in 1951, a three-letter format was introduced, starting at AAA-000. At the same time, the plates' colour scheme changed to black characters on a yolk yellow background. The yolk yellow was replaced with a brighter lemon yellow in 1961, by which point the three-letter serial format had reached the mid 'C' series.
In October 1980, around the beginning of the 'L' series, plates with reflective sheeting began to be issued. At the same time, the slogan "NSW – The Premier State" was added at the bottom of the plate; this was used until November 1988. Two further slogans followed, again appearing at the bottom of the plate: "NSW – The First State" from June 1989 to September 1994, and "NSW – Towards 2000" from September 1994 to September 1996. Since September 1996, car plates have carried the full state name at the bottom.
In the three-letter serial format, the letters I and Q were omitted originally, but were added in 1970. Several blocks of series were skipped, or were reserved for other vehicle types. By July 2004, the format had reached the ZLF series, and was thus close to exhaustion. Hence, the current format was introduced, consisting of two letters, two numbers, and two more letters, starting at AA-00-AA.
Plates continue to consist of black characters on a lemon yellow background, with reflective sheeting.
Trailers
From 1910 to 1951, trailers used the same registration plates and serial formats as cars. In 1951, a separate serial format was introduced for trailers consisting of two letters followed by four numbers. The first letter progressed T, R, A, B and finally C, while the numeric combinations for each series ran from 1000 to 9999; the first serial was thus TA-1000, while the last was CS-9999. Plates continued to consist of white characters on a black background, while the colour scheme for car plates changed.
In August 1981, trailer plates adopted the same colour scheme as car plates, of black characters on a lemon yellow background. At the same time, a new serial format was introduced consisting of one letter followed by five numbers, starting at A-00000. This format omitted the letters I, O and T, and was exhausted in December 2014.
In August 2014, a new trailer plate was introduced consisting of black characters on a white background, and a plain "NSW" legend. This plate uses the same two-letter, two-number, two-letter serial format as car plates, but has T as the first letter, with the first serial being TR-00-AA. This serial format began to be used on the lemon yellow trailer plate as well from December 2014, beginning with TA-00-AA; at the same time, the legend on this plate was changed from the full state name to "NSW – TRAILER".
Motorcycles
From 1910 to 1937, registration plates for motorcycles consisted of black characters on a white background, and used all-numeric serials of up to five numbers. In 1937, the colour scheme was reversed to white characters on a black background, and a serial format of two letters followed by two numbers was introduced, running from AA-00 to ZZ-99, with the letters I and Q skipped for the reasons described above. In 1951, the serial format was expanded to two letters followed by three numbers, starting at AA-000. As with car plates, the colour scheme changed at this point to black characters on a yolk yellow background, with the yolk yellow in turn being replaced with lemon yellow in 1961.
Since October 1980, motorcycles have been provided with one plate rather than two, and plates have been manufactured with reflective sheeting. The two-letter, three-number serial format was exhausted in August 1989, at which point the current format was introduced, consisting of three letters and two numbers, starting at ZZZ-99 and progressing backwards. In November 2009, a plate consisting of black characters on a white background was introduced, using the same serial format but starting at ABA-00 and progressing forwards.

Current general series

Other allocations
General notes
When a black on yellow plate is judged to be in need of replacement, the Roads and Maritime Services are required to manufacture a replacement at no cost to the owner, hence it is quite common to see plates from older series in the current format. Registration plates, both personalised and standard, are able to be transferred between vehicles. A number of Sydney bus operators still recycle old plates including Forest Coach Lines and Punchbowl Bus Company. This practice has since ceased as the Road and Maritime Services has insisted all old plates need to be remade into the current base.

Skipped combinations

Historic
Current

MyPlates range

"MyPlates" range is a product of the Plate Marketing Pty Ltd on behalf of the NSW Roads and Maritime Services. It offers personalisation of registration plates including plate colour and content. Since 2009, all non-reflective bases have been converted to reflective. As of 1 October 2010, Plate Marketing Pty Ltd has been appointed to manage and operate the myPlates business under a 15-year partnering arrangement.
Formats available by type of vehicle:
History of plate launches
Offered in colours are:

Colour on black: AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA-nnn

Black on colour: AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn

Coloured on white: AAA·nnn AAA·nnA AA·nnn AA·nnnn nn·AAA nn·AAAA nnn·AAA cccccc

Coloured range: AAA·nnn AAA·nnA AA·nnn AA·nnnn nn·AAA nn·AAAA nnn·AAA cccccc AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn

Premium Range: AAA·nnn AA·nnnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn
Exclusions & choices: Motorists can choose any combined letters and numbers including solely letters. Plate customisation has also been added into the coloured, premium range and recently motorcycles. Certain restrictions about combinations have been put in place to prevent people from designing plates which appear too much like numeral-only plates which are auctioned off separately. There are also restrictions preventing people from picking combinations that are too similar to special plates issued by the Authority.

Special purpose vehicles

Vehicles with particular purposes in New South Wales have been introduced with numberplates specific to their type.
MyPlates products and special short term plates:
Specialised series blocks in either previous styles or discontinued combinations:
From 1952, the annual cyclic colour scheme was introduced, red, purple, brown, green, orange and blue for all annual trade plates and stickers but the embossed style remained until 1959.
From 1959 the year was added on top of NSW as the format showed as 19 NSW 59 and runs from A-0000 to A-9999.
By 1982, the design was changed, the year moved to the left hand side in vertical, and the dies format changed to standard car size as the previous very large dies was used from 1937.
In 1991, it changed to permanent trade plates with trade word replacing the year, colour changed to white on dark green and ran until 2004 when it was replaced by the current format trade plates with year & bottom legend—NSW TRADE screenprinted & a change to the premium dies
nnnn-A/nnn-BColourA-nnnn/B-nnnColour
2004nnnn·A2005A·nnnn
2006nnnn·A2007A·nnnn
2008nnnn·A2009A·nnnn
2010nnnn·A2011A·nnnn
2012nnnn·A2013A·nnnn
2014nnnn·A2015– Perm

From 1932, registration labels were introduced which corresponded to the vehicle's registration plate, and were displayed on the windscreen or side-windows of vehicles.

The label was a wet application type soaked in cold water which was then applied to the glass, then squeegeed with a clean sponge to remove remaining gum on the label. It was time consuming. In 1992, it changed to self-adhesive printed on registration certificates and continues for heavy vehicles after the abolition of labels for light vehicles.

1932 to 1953 – Non standard annual colours were used

1953 to 2018 – Annual cyclic colours of red, purple, brown, green, orange and light blue.
Design changes