Postal Area (POA)
Postal Areas are ABS approximations of Australia Post postcodes, created by allocating whole Collection Districts (CDs) on a 'best fit' basis to postcodes.
Census Postal Areas exclude non-mappable Australia Post postcodes such as:
- post office box postcodes;
- some delivery route postcodes, which are also covered by other postcodes (a situation which often occurs in rural areas); and
- some postcodes which, because of the application of the 'best fit' principle, do not get a CD allocated to them.
This means that there are more Australia Post postcodes than Census Postal Areas.
Every CD is allocated one valid Australia Post postcode as the Postal Area for that CD. When a person is enumerated in that CD, the Postal Area is allocated to the person as their Postal Area of enumeration.
When a person's address is coded to their CD of Usual Residence, the Postal Area of the CD is allocated to the person as their Postal Area of Usual Residence.
See also Census counts, Collection District (CD), Digital boundaries.
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