The first Canberra number plates?

AG Canberra said :

And why do we have plates that begin with “Y”….becuase the original design Canberra and our suburbs forms the shape of a “Y”. (

Gungahlin is the right arm, out to Charnwood is the left and down to Tuggers is the vertical bit.

April fools?

The YAA prefix was reserved for number owner between 1 and 999 as they were going to recall all numerics. Some of the owners kicked up a big stink so they made it optional. e.g. 2 could be swapped for YAA-002. So offically first general issue prefix was YAB-000. As most of the numeric owners declined the offer to convert, these were issued as general issue some time later.

And why do we have plates that begin with “Y”….becuase the original design Canberra and our suburbs forms the shape of a “Y”. (

Gungahlin is the right arm, out to Charnwood is the left and down to Tuggers is the vertical bit.

Richard Bender said :

When YZZ999 was issued, the ACT initially did not move to the current series. The next set of plates was the YLa-nnn series

Not quite – after YZZ999 but before YLAnnn there were a series of plates with the third letter being a “Q” These were not issued in the original sequence. They went YAQnnn, YBQnnn, YCQnnn etc. up to YHQnnn. YIQnnn onwards were released earlier in their correct sequence.

Also before YLA, YKVnnn, YKWnnn, YKXnnn, YKYnnn and YKZnnn were issued.

cavvygreen said :

We had the number plate 410. When we given the option of paying money to keep it or get YAA 410 for free, we took the free one. We were pretty broke, way back then.

My husband has always regretted handing it back in, as it had been handed down to him by his dad 🙁

Wonder who has it now !

Cavvygreen must be an oldie like me . . she hit the nail on the head. I seem to think it was a little later than 1968 – perhaps 1970?

John Moulis said :

The first plates issued in the ACT were numbered from 1 to 99,999.

Not quite – 99,936 to 99,999 were not originally issued. Therefore YAA-000 came immediately after 99,935. Numberplates from 99,936 to 99,999 were however, made available for purchase back in 1983 when personalised plates were made available. All unused (non current) numeric plates were made available again for purchase in 1983. Personalised and numeric plates then cost $50 and were only available in tin.

The first plastic plates were made available at the same time that custom plates were first made available. That was in 1992. Soon before 1992 the ACT Government sought expressions of interest for custom plates. The most popular ones that people wanted were then auctioned at the Albert Hall in 1992. The first custom plate to be auctioned which was lot 1 was “HOLDEN” After the auction custom plates were not available for purchase over the counter until 1994.

When YZZ999 was issued, the ACT initially did not move to the current series. The next set of plates was the YLa-nnn series that, for reasons somebody here may know, had never been issued the first time around. You’ll see plenty of mid-1990s Falcons and Commodores with these plates. Then they began reissuing from YAa-nnn if the plates were no longer in use. My brother’s 1997 Pulsar got YAQ followed by three digits, rather than the last character being a letter. So YAA 110 may have been kept in the family for years, but equally may have been issued more recently.

The first Y series were YAB-nnn, not YAA-nnn. As cavvygreen noted above, YAA was for transfers from the old numeric series.

I believe they started with YAA, because that’s what people started screaming when they saw the skill level being applied by Canberra drivers.

You can transfer your old number plates to a new car. Don’t know about a second hand one though. My mum’s number (YAW—. Got late January of the year they came in. Sorry my memory doesn’t supply the year) has adorned three cars so far.
Although you do have to pay for the transfer; administrative fees at least. They put your old plates on your new car and the new set on your old car.
The set currently on her car are a second set; the originals faded and had to be re-pressed.
She also had the option of retaining her original number (her original had two digits followed by three digits, white on dark blue) but she would of had to pay to have them manufactured in the new blue on white reflective we have now.
Though some people did. The all-number plates you sometimes see are possibly original original numbers.

There are also plates getting around with just numeric digits (eg 127) as well as ones with more detailed numeric digits (eg 8-137). I have feeling that these may have been the first released before the YAAs started, but I could be wrong. I’m not sure what range the numerics went to before starting at Yaa, but it would be interesting to know if anyone has the information.

We had the number plate 410. When we given the option of paying money to keep it or get YAA 410 for free, we took the free one. We were pretty broke, way back then.

My husband has always regretted handing it back in, as it had been handed down to him by his dad 🙁

Wonder who has it now !

The first plates issued in the ACT were numbered from 1 to 99,999. From 1,000 to 99,999 there was the small diamond divider where the comma is. After 99,999 the Y series started. All plates were blue lettering on white background and they were reflectorised from the first one, the first state or territory to have reflectorised number plates.

Solidarity said :

What was before blue and white plates?

White lettering black background with ACT on the left side ????

There used to be an old Chrysler (I think Chrysler) based in Aranda with the number plate YAA 000, which I assume would have been the first one. That means that if it was a very early plate carried over then 110 would be the 111th plate issued.

I’ve been here for a while but not that long and got no idea why 1968 came to mind. Must have read it somewhere sometime and it must have been an pivotal fact in something for me to have retained it.

You can also get older series plates remade, assuming their not still in active service. Mrs C has a YAA-999 style plate on her car, which was built in 2006. You just pay the same fee as you would for a AA-999 personalised plate.

I know YCX-999 would have been around in 1971 because in the late 1980s my family bought a one-owner car built and first registered in the ACT in 1971.

What was before blue and white plates?

The “Y” series plates were issued from August 1968. YAA110 would have been issued later that year.

Keijidosha is correct, The letter “O” is not used in the 6th character of the current series of “Y” plates which end with a letter.

I don’t actually know, was just assuming so. In that case it’s a very old numberplate! Somebody should ring up and as if you’re allowed to keep your old one if you pay.

1968 seems to come immediately to mind for Y plates in blue and white … which means I’m probably wrong.

Pretty sure ‘O’ isn’t used as the last letter on the newer YXX 99X series plates for the reason it can be too easily confused with a zero. Happy to be shown evidence to the contrary though!

Sure it wasn’t 11O not 110? Then it would fit in with the newer pattern of the last digit being a letter, which came in a few years ago when we hit YZZ 999. If it was 110 then maybe the guy kept the number plate from earlier, which I didn’t think you could do, but I also don’t know much about it. 11O seems more likely to me though.