Victoria

Victoria is Australia's second most populous state, with roughly 6.9 million residents concentrated around Melbourne, the country's second-largest city and a primary financial, education, and cultural centre. The state occupies the south-eastern corner of the mainland, bordered by New South Wales to the north along the Murray River and by South Australia to the west. Victoria's economy is anchored by services, advanced manufacturing, agriculture in the Goulburn Valley and the Western District, and a port complex at Melbourne that handles a significant share of national container traffic.

Plates issued in Victoria follow the post-2013 1AB-2CD format: a digit, two letters, a digit, then two more letters, e.g. 1AB-2CD. The current series is administered by VicRoads on a white base with blue characters and the slogan "Victoria - The Place To Be" at the bottom. The seven-character alphanumeric pattern was introduced when the older ABC-123 series approached its combinatorial ceiling; older ABC-123 plates remain valid on vehicles registered before the switch and are still common on the road, especially on cars from the 2000s.

Like other Australian jurisdictions, Victorian plate strings do not encode a region of issue. A plate from Mildura on the Murray reads the same, in form, as one from inner Melbourne or from coastal Warrnambool. Victoria also runs a long-standing custom plate programme, with personalised combinations, heritage-themed plates (including reproductions of the original 1953 yellow-on-black design), and short numeric "Premier" series that trade at significant secondary-market premiums. Those are out of scope for the standard validator. Heavy vehicles, motorcycles, and trailers each have their own parallel series. The 1AB-2CD shape is what you will see on the vast majority of passenger cars registered in Victoria today.