The GDP and population series are available for any year, or range of years, between 1789 and the present. The GDP deflator, real GDP and real GDP per capita are available from 1828 on, the CPI from 1851, and the stock index starts in 1875.

Until the beginning of the twentieth century, the Australia colonies were part of the British Empire and their official currency was the British pound. With Federation in 1901, the Australian government became responsible for the currency and in 1910 introduced the Australian pound (consisting of 20 shillings or 240 pence) as the nation’s official currency. Until 1931, the Australian and British pounds were officially at parity although there were small variations in the market exchange rate. In 1966, the official currency was changed to the Australian dollar (with 100 cents), at a conversion rate of one Australian pound to two Australian dollars.

Data for GDP before 1966 are presented in pounds and those after are in dollars. The per capita values are converted to dollars from the beginning.

As with most long-run data sets, different series must be spliced together to make them consistent over time. This may make the nominal levels slightly different than they are in the source data. For information about the construction of these data see: Australian Data: GDP, GDP deflator, CPI and Population data sources and methods.

Diane Hutchinson and Florian Ploeckl, "What Was the Australian GDP or CPI Then?" MeasuringWorth, URL: http://www.measuringworth.com/australiadata/

Please let us know if and how this discussion has assisted you in using our calculators.