Australia By Telephone

Prepaid phone cards are a common and relatively inexpensive means of calling abroad. Each one comes with a Personal Identification Number (PIN) and a toll-free access number. You call the access number and then follow the directions for dialing using your PIN. To purchase prepaid phone cards, check online for the best rates; www.callingcards.com is a good place to start. Online providers generally send your access number and PIN via email, with no actual “card” involved. You can also call home with prepaid phone cards purchased in Australia (see Calling Within Australia, ).

Another option is to purchase a

Placing International Calls. To call Australia from home or to call home from Australia, dial:
1. The international dialing prefix. To call from Australia, dial 0011; Canada or the US, 011; and Ireland, New Zealand, or the UK, 00.
2. The country code of the country you want to call. To call Australia, dial 61; Canada or the US, 1; Ireland, 353; New Zealand, 64; and the UK, 44.
3. The city/area code. Let’s Go lists the city/area codes for cities and towns in Australia opposite the city or town name, next to a }, as well as in every phone number. If the first digit is a zero (e.g., 02 for Sydney), omit the zero when calling from abroad.
4. The local number.

calling card that’s linked to a major national telecommunications service in your home country. Calls are billed either collect or to your account. To call home with a calling card, contact the operator for your service provider in Australia ( Optus and Telstra are the main telecommunications companies) by dialing the appropriate toll-free access number (these are listed below in the third column).

Company	To Obtain A Card:	To Call Abroad:
AT&T (US)	☎800-364-9292 or www.att.com	☎1800 551 155 (Optus) or 1800 881 011 (Telstra)
Canada Direct	☎800-561-8868 or www.infocanadadirect.com	☎1800 551 177 or 1800 881 150
MCI (US)	☎800-777-5000 or www.minutepass.com	☎1800 551 111 (Optus) or 1800 881 100 (Telstra)
Telecom New Zealand Direct	www.telecom.co.nz	☎1800 551 164 (Optus) or 1800 881 640 (Telstra)

Placing a collect call via international operator can be expensive, but may be necessary in case of an emergency. Often you can call collect without buying a company’s calling card: dial its access number and follow the instructions.

Calling Within Australia

The simplest way to call within Australia is to use a coin-operated phone. Prepaid phone cards (available at newspaper kiosks and tobacco stores) usually save time and money in the long run. Phone rates typically tend to be highest in the morning, lower in the evening, and lowest on Sunday and late at night.

Public phones are everywhere in Australia. Long-distance calls within Australia use STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialing) services. You must dial an area code (listed next to town names in this guide) before the eight-digit number. Some public phones in Australia (mostly located at airports, in and around city centers, and at major hotels) will allow you to charge a call to your credit card.

For local and national directory assistance in Australia, you can call toll-free ☎1223 from any phone; for international assistance dial ☎1225 instead. Six-digit phone numbers beginning with 13 are information numbers that can be dialed from anywhere in Australia for the same price as a local call. Numbers beginning with 1300 operate similarly. Numbers beginning with 1800 are toll-free and can be dialed as such from public phones.

Cellular Phones

Cellular phones are common in urban Australia. Numbers are 10 digits long and always begin with 04. Incoming calls are usually free; caller charges run about $0.25 per minute. Major service providers include Optus (www.optus.com.au), Telstra (www.telstra.com), and Vodafone (www.vodafone.com.au).

The international standard for cell phones is Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM). To make and receive calls in Australia, you will need a GSM-compatible phone and a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card, a country-specific, thumbnail-sized chip that gives you a local phone number and plugs you into the local network. Australia’s GSM network is compatible with most phones used in Europe, but only with some of the phones commonly used in the US. Many SIM cards are prepaid, and incoming calls are frequently free. You can buy additional cards or vouchers (usually available at convenience stores) to “top up” your phone. For more information on GSM phones, check out www.telestial.com, www.orange.co.uk, www.roadpost.com, or www.planetomni.com. Companies like Cellular Abroad (www.cellularabroad.com) rent cell phones that work in a variety of destinations all over the world.

Time Differences

Although there are formally only three time zones in Australia, keeping on schedule can be a bit confusing for travelers due to inconsistent observance of Daylight Saving Time (DST), which happens every year from late October to late March or early April. Six of the eight Australian states/territories (excluding Queensland and Northern Territory) observe DST, meaning that Australia’s time zones end up following state borders both vertically and horizontally (for time zones, see inside back cover). Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), also known as Universal Standard Time (UST), is not affected by DST, so it provides a standard to calculate differences in time zones.

In the table below, the column on the left represents your location. The values indicate the time in other regions relative to the time in your region. To calculate the time in a different zone, add or subtract the difference in hours between the two places. For example, if it is noon in GMT, then it is 10pm in Victoria. Remember that sometimes the date is effected—Australia is ahead of the Western Hemisphere, so Monday evening in New York is Tuesday morning in Sydney. All regions that observe DST have an asterisk (*). Therefore, during DST, if you start in a row with an asterisk, subtract 1hr. If you end in a column with an asterisk, add one hour. For example, if it is noon in GMT during DST, then it is 11pm in Victoria. South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia, and the Australia Capital Territory start DST on the last Sunday in October, while Tasmania begins its observation on the first Sunday in October. All states end DST on the last Sunday in March or the first Sunday in April.

Time Zones	Gmt	Wa*	Nt	Sa*	Qld	Act* Nsw* Tas* Vic*
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)		+8	+9.5	+9.5	+10	+10
*Western Australia (WA)**	-8		+1.5	+1.5	+2	+2
Northern Territory (NT)	-9.5	-1.5		0	+0.5	+0.5
*Southern Australia (SA)**	-9.5	-1.5	0		+0.5	+0.5
Queensland (QLD)	-10	-2	-0.5	-0.5		0
ACT, NSW, Tasmania, Victoria	-10	-2	-0.5	-0.5	0