Metrication in Australia in the context of "Metrication in the United States"

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⭐ Core Definition: Metrication in Australia

Metrication in Australia effectively began in 1966 with the conversion to decimal currency under the auspices of the Decimal Currency Board. The conversion of measurements—metrication—started in 1971 under the direction of the Metric Conversion Board, and actively proceeded until the Board was disbanded in 1981.

Before 1970, Australia mostly used imperial units of measurement, as a legacy of being a colony of the United Kingdom. Between 1970–88, imperial units were withdrawn from general legal use and replaced with the International System of Units, facilitated through legislation and government agencies. SI units are now the only legal units of measurement in Australia. Australia's largely successful transition to the metric system parallels that of metrication in New Zealand but contrasts with metrication in the United States, metrication in the United Kingdom, and metrication in Canada which was only partial.

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Metrication in Australia in the context of Acre

The acre (/ˈkər/ AY-kər) is a unit of land area used in the British imperial and the United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, 1640 of a square mile, 4,840 square yards, or 43,560 square feet, and approximately 4,047 m, or about 40% of a hectare. The acre is sometimes abbreviated ac, but is usually spelled out as the word "acre".

Traditionally, in the Middle Ages, an acre was conceived of as the area of land that could be ploughed by one man using a team of eight oxen in one day. The acre is still a statutory measure in the United States, where both the international acre and the US survey acre are in use, but they differ by only four parts per million. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land. The acre is used in many existing and former Commonwealth of Nations countries by custom. In a few, it continues as a statute measure, although not since 2010 in the UK, and not for decades in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In many places where the acre is no longer a statute measure, it is still lawful to use as supplementary information next to the statutory hectare measurement.

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