Use maximal capitals for full formal (unique) names of organisations and institutions.

Names of organisations and institutions may be shortened after their first use in the text. Whether to use capitals in shortened forms depends on whether the shortened form consists only of the generic component (e.g. the department) or retains some significant part of the descriptor (e.g. the Environment Department). Do not capitalise the generic component when used as an adjective (e.g. government policy) or as a plural.

The words state and territory are not capitalised when used in the plural or a generic sense.

Examples to illustrate these conventions are set out in the table.

Full formal titleInformal, generic and plural use, and shortened forms
  • the Government of Australia
  • Australian Government
  • the government
  • national government
  • government issues
  • the Government of Victoria
  • Victorian Government
  • state government
  • governments of the states and territories
  • Department of Education
  • the Education Department
  • the department
  • department report
  • Australian Sports Drug Testing Laboratory
  • the Drug Testing Laboratory
  • the laboratory

'The' in organisation names

Some organisation names start with a capitalised The (e.g. The University of New South Wales). Change this to a lower-case the within sentences:

She is a student at the University of New South Wales.