Area code 08 — Perth, Adelaide and Darwin
08 is the landline code for Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory, including Perth, Adelaide and Darwin. Broken Hill and other parts of western New South Wales use it too.
About area code 08
An 08 number is the area code followed by eight digits, written 08 9xxx xxxx. The ACMA numbering plan calls this area the Central and West Region and assigns it to Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and parts of western New South Wales. Perth numbers usually begin with 9 after the code, with newer ranges starting with 5 or 6, Adelaide numbers with 7, 8, 20 or 21, Darwin and Alice Springs numbers with 29, 79 or 89, and Broken Hill numbers with 80.
Because 08 spans two states, the Northern Territory and a corner of New South Wales, the code alone tells you little. The first digits narrow it down, but number portability means a business can move its 08 number to another provider, and a geographic number can be used with an internet phone service at a flexible location. A call that shows a Perth or Adelaide number may come from somewhere else entirely, including from a staff member working from home.
Everyday 08 calls come from state government agencies, hospitals and clinics, mining and resources companies, councils, schools and universities, banks, energy retailers, real estate agents and tradespeople. Remember that Perth and Darwin are in different time zones from the eastern states, so an early-morning or late call may simply be a business working its own hours. A genuine caller refers to something you recognise and is happy for you to call back.
Scammers fake 08 numbers in the same way as other codes. They pose as banks, government agencies, delivery companies and telcos, and some push you to act quickly before you can check. Telstra’s call warnings flag some calls that appear local but come from overseas, and others that look spoofed, but not every scam call is caught. If a caller tries to keep you on the line or asks you to install an app, that is reason enough to hang up.
To check an unexpected 08 call, hang up and contact the organisation using a number from its website, a letter or your card, never one the caller gave you. If you lost money, call your bank straight away and report the crime to police on 131 444, which WA Police and NT Police list for non-urgent matters. Report the scam to Scamwatch as well, and look the number up here to see what other people have reported.
We don’t have any reports for numbers in this area yet.
Other numbers with area code 08
Numbers without reports yet — if one of them called you, add the first.
Operators in the Perth, Adelaide and Darwin area
The operator shows which provider the number range was originally allocated to under the Australian numbering plan. The number may have been ported to another network since, so treat this as the origin of the range, not as the customer’s current provider. Source: Australian numbering plan, ACMA (acma.gov.au), and open numbering data from Google libphonenumber