Queensland

Queensland is Australia's third most populous state, with roughly 5.5 million residents spread across an enormous area that runs from the subtropical Gold Coast through Brisbane and the agricultural Darling Downs up to the Torres Strait and the Cape York Peninsula. The state economy is anchored by mining (coal in the Bowen Basin, bauxite at Weipa), agriculture (sugar, beef, tropical fruit), tourism along the Great Barrier Reef and the Sunshine and Gold Coasts, and the deep-water ports at Brisbane and Gladstone.

Plates issued in Queensland follow the 123-ABC format: three digits, then three letters, e.g. 123-ABC. The current series is administered by the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads on a white base with maroon characters and the slogan "Queensland - The Sunshine State" running along the bottom. The three-digit, three-letter pattern has been the default issue since the late 1990s, when the older ABC-123 shape ran out of combinations. The maroon colour scheme is the state's sporting colour, used on the rugby league State of Origin jersey and recognised across the country.

Queensland plate strings, like those of the other Australian states, do not encode the region of registration. A plate first issued in Cairns reads identically, in shape, to one issued in Toowoomba or in Brisbane's CBD. Queensland runs an active personalised plate programme through Personalised Plates Queensland; those combinations sit outside the standard 123-ABC series and are out of scope for the standard validator. Heavy vehicles, motorcycles, trailers, and personalised plates each follow their own conventions. On a Queensland road today, the overwhelming majority of passenger cars carry the maroon-on-white 123-ABC shape.