<P> 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--commenced subsequently in 1971, under the direction of the Metric Conversion Board and actively proceeded until the Board was disbanded in 1981 . </P> <P> Before 1970, Australia mostly used the imperial system for measurement, which the Australian colonies had inherited from the United Kingdom . Between 1970 and 1988, imperial units were withdrawn from general legal use and replaced with SI metric units, facilitated through legislation and government agencies . SI units are now the sole legal units of measurement in Australia . Australia's largely successful transition to the metric system contrasts with the ongoing opposition to metrication in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom . </P> <P> Although there was debate in Australia's first Parliament after federation to consider adopting the metric system, metric units first became legal for use in Australia in 1947 when Australia signed the Metre Convention (or Convention du Mètre). However, Imperial "Weights and Measures" were most commonly used until the Commonwealth government began the metric changeover in the 1970s . In 1960, SI units were adopted as a worldwide system of measurement by international agreement at the General Conference on Weights and Measures . The metre, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, candela and mole were defined as base units in this system and units formed from combinations of these base units were known as "derived units". SI units were subsequently adopted as the basis for Australia's measurement standards, whereby they were defined as Australia's legal units of measurement . </P>

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