Australia's Consolidated List grades its aliases and names the measure that bites
3,906 listings in one XLSX from the Australian Sanctions Office, with strong and weak aliases flagged and four measures marked per entry.
Australia rebuilt this file in November 2025, and the rebuild fixed the two things that make most sanctions lists expensive to work with. First, every alias now carries a strength: strong if a match on it should be treated as a match on the listing, weak if it should not. Second, each listing states which of four measures applies — targeted financial sanction, travel ban, arms embargo, maritime restriction — so you stop treating a travel-ban-only designation as a payment block. The Australian Sanctions Office at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade maintains the list, which consolidates designations made under the Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 and regulations under the Charter of the United Nations Act 1945 into one spreadsheet, published free as XLSX with no key. The workbook we downloaded on 4 September 2026 held 11,163 rows, which resolve to 3,906 actual listings: 2,543 individuals, 1,041 entities and 322 vessels. The other 7,257 rows are 6,802 aliases and 455 original-script names, joined to their listing by a Reference number. Counting rows instead of primary names is how the Australian list gets misquoted at three times its size.
What this workflow covers
SCOPE- 3,906 primary listings on 4 September 2026 — 2,543 individuals, 1,041 entities, 322 vessels — expanded across 11,163 rows.
- 6,802 alias rows, of which 6,346 are marked Strong and 456 Weak. The weak flag is a matching instruction from the issuing authority, and ignoring it manufactures false positives that DFAT has already told you to discount.
- Four measure columns per listing, and they do not move together: 3,610 listings carry a targeted financial sanction, 2,505 a travel ban, 541 an arms embargo and 298 a maritime restriction.
- 19 columns including Reference, Name Type, Alias Strength, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Citizenship, Address, Committees, Control Date and Instrument of Designation. 2,419 primary listings carry a date of birth and 2,134 a citizenship.
- The Committees column separates UN from autonomous origin: Autonomous (Russia) 972, Autonomous (Ukraine) 841, 1267 ISIL and Al-Qaida 336, Autonomous (Vessels) 262, Autonomous (Iran) 240, 1718 DPRK 214.
- 365 distinct instruments of designation are cited, from the Charter of the United Nations regulations of 2008 through to the Autonomous Sanctions (Sanctioned Vessels — Russia) designations of 2025.
- Download: Australian_Sanctions_Consolidated_List.xlsx, about 1.3 MB, from the DFAT consolidated list page. One sheet, one format, no CSV and no API. Control dates in it run from 16 August 2012 to 28 August 2026, and that per-listing change date is enough to build a delta without a change file.
- 320 of the 322 vessel listings carry an IMO number, so ship matching should key on IMO; ship names in the Russia shadow-fleet designations are reused across hulls and will not discriminate.
- Handle a hit by reading the measure columns before the name. A travel-ban-only listing does not freeze a payment, and an arms-embargo listing constrains a category of goods rather than the counterparty's bank account. Australia sits among the main jurisdictions on our coverage register.
Key statistics
DATA- Primary listings in the XLSX downloaded 4 September 2026
- 3,906 (2,543 individuals, 1,041 entities, 322 vessels)
- Counted from the Australian Sanctions Consolidated List workbook
- Alias rows by strength
- 6,346 strong, 456 weak
- Counted from the Australian Sanctions Consolidated List workbook
- Listings carrying each measure
- 3,610 financial, 2,505 travel ban, 541 arms embargo, 298 maritime
- Counted from the Australian Sanctions Consolidated List workbook
Compliance glossary
TERMS- Australian Sanctions Office (ASO)
- The DFAT unit that administers Australian sanctions law, maintains the Consolidated List and assesses permit applications for otherwise prohibited dealings.
- Alias strength
- The issuing authority's own judgement on whether a match against an alternative name should be treated as a match against the listing. Australia marks each alias strong or weak.
- Targeted financial sanction
- The measure that freezes assets and prohibits making assets available to a designated person or entity. It is one of four measures the Australian list records per listing.
- Instrument of designation
- The legislative instrument that created a listing, named on every row. It is what you cite in an evidence file, because the list itself is a consolidation rather than the operative law.
Authoritative references
SOURCES- 01Consolidated List
Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- 02Guide to Australia's Consolidated List
Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- 03Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011
Federal Register of Legislation, Australia
- 04Charter of the United Nations Act 1945
Federal Register of Legislation, Australia
Frequently asked questions
Q&A- How many people and entities are actually on the DFAT Consolidated List?
- 3,906 as at 4 September 2026 — 2,543 individuals, 1,041 entities and 322 vessels. The spreadsheet has 11,163 rows because aliases and original-script names each get their own row. Filter on Name Type equals Primary Name before you count, or before you report a coverage figure to anyone.
- What does a weak alias mean on the Australian list?
- It means DFAT does not consider a match on that name form sufficient on its own. Weak aliases are partial, ambiguous or heavily transliterated variants included for completeness. There are 456 of them against 6,346 strong aliases, and treating the two categories identically is the fastest way to flood a review queue.
- Does a listing on the Consolidated List always mean an asset freeze?
- No, and the file tells you. 3,610 of the 3,906 listings carry a targeted financial sanction; the rest do not. Some listings are travel bans only, which restrict entry to Australia and have no effect on a transaction. Read the four measure columns rather than assuming the listing means the same thing every time.
- How often is the DFAT list updated and how do I see changes?
- It changes as designations are made, without a fixed calendar; the most recent control date in the 4 September 2026 file was 28 August 2026. There is no delta file, but the Control Date column carries a per-listing change date, so a diff on Reference plus Control Date gives you a workable change feed.
- Does the Consolidated List include Australia's listed terrorist organisations?
- Not as a separate category — the Criminal Code listing of terrorist organisations is a distinct instrument administered outside the sanctions framework, though many of the same groups appear here through UN 1267 designations. If your obligation is the Criminal Code one, check that instrument as well.
- Do Australian sanctions apply to a European company?
- They apply to Australian citizens and bodies corporate wherever they are, and to anyone acting within Australia. A European exporter with an Australian subsidiary, an Australian director or goods transiting Australia can be caught. Firms with no Australian nexus usually screen the list for correspondent risk rather than for direct obligation.