How to fax to Australia from the US

By your afternoon, it’s tomorrow in Australia

The gap moves because the seasons are reversed. US clocks go forward on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November. Daylight saving in Australia starts on the first Sunday in October and ends on the first Sunday in April, but Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia don’t take part.

Adelaide is always 30 minutes behind Sydney, and Darwin 30 minutes behind Brisbane. What that does to your week:

• Your evening is their morning. 5 p.m. Monday in New York is 9 a.m. Tuesday in Sydney in the table’s first row, 7 a.m. in its second.
• Your Friday afternoon is their Saturday, in all three cities, from either coast.
• Deadlines land early. 5 p.m. Friday in Sydney is 1 a.m. Friday in New York and 10 p.m. Thursday in Los Angeles in the first row. For a deadline in Australian time, plan around your Thursday.

Your cover page shows your device’s date and time from when you select Get the total, with an offset like UTC-5. Send on Monday evening and it prints Monday, though it’s Tuesday there.

One area code, three clocks

A landline number has 10 digits, and the numbering plan has only four area codes. So a code can’t tell you the time: 08 alone covers three clock rules.

Broken Hill is in New South Wales, yet it uses 08 and keeps Adelaide’s time.

From the letterhead to the number field

Landline length is fixed, so a number one digit short or long is refused. A wrong digit isn’t caught: at the review step, compare the +61 version with your source, digit by digit.

When the number isn’t a landline

A cell phone can’t take a fax, so ask for a regular 02, 03, 07 or 08 fax number. If they list a separate number for overseas senders, use that.

Islands and neighbors we can’t reach

These are off our list, even where the number looks Australian. Use email or mail instead:

• Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. They use Australian 08 numbers, like 08 9164 on Christmas Island and 08 9162 on Cocos. They’re refused with “FaxTonic doesn’t send to this country.”
• Norfolk Island. It’s an Australian external territory outside the +61 plan, with numbers on +672 3.
• New Zealand, +64. Our international guide lists where we do send.

Check that the line still takes faxes

An old letterhead can mislead you. nbn, which runs Australia’s broadband access network, says the network can support fax on some phone services, warns that some existing devices may not always be compatible, and sends owners to their provider. The NSW Department of Customer Service has dropped fax altogether: it says it no longer uses fax machines and can’t receive faxed correspondence.

Confirm the number by email or phone before you pay. If you call, remember that when Sydney opens at 9 a.m. on Monday, it’s still Sunday in the US. If a fax fails anyway, the status page’s “What to check” box explains why, when the carrier gave a reason. Our troubleshooting guide has next steps.

Send your fax to Australia with FaxTonic

1. Open FaxTonic, then add your document: PDF, JPEG, and PNG, up to 20 pages with the cover.
2. Add your email address to the cover page. FaxTonic only sends faxes, so the recipient can’t reply to the US number printed on each page.
3. Choose Australia, type the 10-digit number and check the +61 version.
4. Check the total, $1.59 a page at any hour, and pay by card.
5. Watch the status page. “Delivered” means the receiving machine confirmed the fax, nothing more.

Play the video: How to Send a One-Time Fax Without Signing Up for Anything

An undelivered fax is refunded automatically: we keep a fee of $0.30 + 2.9% and send back the rest, or send back everything if our fax provider refused the fax when we submitted it. There’s no refund for a delivered fax, even one that reached a wrong number. See the refund policy.