Legal LGA code (1986)
These are identified by unique four digit numeric codes within States/ Territories. The legal LGA codes were determined in conjunction with SLA codes and are strongly integrated with them. They have the following features:
(a) they are identical with SLA codes in all cases where there is a strict one to one correspondence between legal LGAs and SLAs;
(b) their first three digits are identical with the first three digits of SLA codes in all those cases where legal LGAs consist of two or three SLAs.
The above described incorporation of the legal LGA code in the SLA code permits almost all SLAs to be linked with their respective legal LGAs. The only exceptions occur in Queensland and the Northern Territory in the case of the following legal LGAs:
QLD : Albert, Brisbane, Logan, Pine Rivers, Redland, Caboolture, Gold Coast, Moreton, Thuringowa and Townsville;
NT : Darwin and Palmerston.
In these exceptional cases each of the legal LGAs has more than eight component SLAs.
For unique Australia wide identification each legal LGA needs to be identified by at least its own four digit code plus the code of the relevant State/ Territory.
An additional code of 9399 is to be used to represent the aggregation of the 'Unincorporated' SLAs for each State and the Northern Territory. It is to be used as a defacto legal LGA to enable State/ Territory totals to be produced for some census legal LGA output.