Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with postcode

Postcode ranges in Australia?

jules1651 — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:30:00 -0800

I am looking for a source on the internet that will give me ranges for postal codes in Australia for metro areas, eg, 3200-3500 is Melbourne where the range would include all suburbs generally agreed to be part of metro Melbourne. If they aren't really in a range, than a list of all the Melbourne metro postcodes would work. I feel like I have only found ranges by state but those include rural areas. Any help very appreciated. The cities are Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, and Brisbane.

I'm not a number, I'm a postcode!

Orange Goblin — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 07:53:30 -0800

You know when you're filling out a online address form, and they ask for your postcode then find your full address? Yeah, that doesn't work for me. How do I fix this? I've just recently moved into a new flat, in a block that was converted from offices above a shop. When I put my postcode into one of these forms, the only two options I have to pick for my address are the shop, or somewhere that isn't even on the correct road.

I guess there is some Royal Mail maintained database with all this on, so who do I have to contact to update it? Is this even possible? Will I just get bogged down in horrible bureaucracy trying to prove that yes, my home does actually exist? Perhaps you can let me know.

Is UK postcode data freely available in the public domain?

ajp — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 08:39:04 -0800

Is UK postcode data freely available in the public domain? If I wanted to get a list of all known UK postcodes, is this data publicly available for no cost?

I presume that the electoral role will reveal most of this, although not all of it. That would suggest that all postcodes and addresses are in the public domain. Is that accurate?

I've read about the Postcode Address File and QAS. I'm not interested in data or services that have a cost. However, I am curious about why there is a charge for some of these services, such as QAS. (I presume it's for the licensing for the code that searches the PAF, and for regular updates to the data, rather than for the data itself.)

But is UK postcode data - in theory - public property?

Oh... I don't intend to spam anyone :-)

Where to get postcodes and map them to distances?

reklaw — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 05:16:55 -0800

I'd like to store people's postcodes and work out distances between them. I think I need a postcode-to-coordinates database, and then a way of working out the distances... So, two questions really:

1. Where can I get a database mapping postcodes to latitude and longitude (or some other better co-ordinate system)? Free is the best price, but not essential, and the UK is the most important place to cover, but as many as possible would be nice.
2. Once I had such a thing, how would I go about working out the distances between postcodes with it?

PS. This is for a free project, not a business or my job or anything.