Tasmania

Tasmania is the island state to the south of the mainland, separated by the Bass Strait and home to roughly 575,000 people, the majority of whom live in or around Hobart and Launceston. The state's economy is anchored by agriculture (dairy, beef, salmon aquaculture, wine, and apples), hydroelectric generation, tourism through MONA, Cradle Mountain and the Tasman Peninsula, and forestry. Tasmania is one of the most geographically distinctive states in the country: the western half is dominated by World Heritage-listed wilderness, while the east coast and the midlands carry the bulk of the population and agriculture.

Plates issued in Tasmania follow the A12-AB format: one letter, two digits, then two letters, e.g. A12-AB. The current series is administered by Transport Tasmania on a white base with green characters, the slogan "Tasmania - Explore the Possibilities" along the bottom, and a Tasmanian devil emblem at the top. Tasmanian passenger plates are physically shorter than mainland-east plates: the state retained the compact six-character layout when neighbouring states moved to seven, and a Tasmanian plate is noticeably smaller side-on. The green colour and the devil emblem make TAS plates easy to identify on the mainland, where Tasmanian-registered vehicles frequently turn up after being shipped across on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry.

Tasmanian plate strings carry no regional signal. A plate first issued in Devonport in the north-west reads identically, in shape, to one issued in Hobart or in Launceston. The state's smaller registration base means the A12-AB shape has comfortably more than enough combinations to last the current series; no widespread re-shape is on the horizon. Personalised and custom plates sit alongside the standard issue and are out of scope for the standard validator. Heavy vehicles and motorcycles carry their own parallel sequences.