Capitalisation
Use a capital letter on the first word only of:
- titles
- subtitles
- headings
- subheadings
- page titles
- navigation labels
Do not use all capitals-this format is reserved for DANGER and WARNING signs.
Use capitals on proper names, but not on generic or plural elements of those names:
- the Sun Bay Landcare Committee met... Members of the committee voted to...
- the Brisbane River; the Brisbane and Bremer rivers
- the Minister for Transport … the minister's view
- The Premier, Peter Beattie; the premiers of Queensland and Western Australia.
When a proper name is abbreviated but retains some specific elements, keep the capitals: the Reserve Bank of Australia … the Reserve Bank … the bank
Commonwealth
This takes a capital when used in the context of Australia as a federation:
- the Commonwealth of Australia; the Commonwealth Parliament.
Note: Australian Government, not Commonwealth Government, is the current official title of Australia's federal government. Use Commonwealth only when referring to a specific program or department that retains the term in its name: the Commonwealth Parliament, Commonwealth legislation.
Department, federal, government, parliament
Such terms take a capital only when they are part of a formal title (a proper noun), but lower case elsewhere:
- the Department of Industrial Relations; the department takes the view that…
- the Federal Court of Australia; a response from the federal government (federal, in this sense is a descriptive term); a federal responsibility
- the Australian Government; the Queensland Government; the government proposes to; a state government initiative; government agencies; local government
- outside Parliament House; a Bill before parliament; the parliamentarians voted
Invariable capitalisation
The following terms, when used in relation to government, always take a capital to avoid confusion with their generic meaning:
- the Cabinet; the Treasury; the Crown; the House; Act(s); Ordinance(s); Regulation(s); Bill(s)
An exception to this rule is:
- the Budget; budget provisions; federal budgets
State and territory
These words take a capital when used in proper names but not in generic or plural references:
- the State of Queensland; state government policies, state land, an independent state
- Jervis Bay is part of the Australian Capital Territory. The territory's total area is …
Publications
Use minimal capitalisation (first word only) for all titles except those of legislation, journals, magazines and newspapers. Headings with a follow-on subheading do not require a capital letter after the colon. For example: Guide to healthy living: for kids by kids.
Geographical and political designations
Names that designate a group of nations geographically or politically always take a capital: South-East Asia; Central America; the Balkans; the Maldives
Purely descriptive and unofficial names for parts of a geographical entity are usually not capitalised: northern Australia; southern Italy
Sometimes, when descriptive names of this type become semi-official, they then take a capital: Central Australia; Far North Queensland; the Gulf (of Carpentaria); the Red Centre
Last updated 02 August 2005