Australian Tablespoon (tbsp (AU))

Cooking & barCurrent unit

Exactly 20 mL, which makes it larger than the 15 mL tablespoon used in the US and UK.

1 Australian tablespoon = 0.02 liters (exactly).

About the Australian tablespoon

Australia is the odd one out among tablespoon sizes. Wikipedia reports that the Metric Conversion Board promulgated a 20 mL definition in the 1970s as part of metrication, and calls it the Australian official definition. That is about 1 and a third of the 15 mL international metric tablespoon, and exactly four metric teaspoons of 5 mL each.

Elsewhere the spoon is smaller. The common UK and US definitions are both exactly 15 mL, while the older customary spoons were half a fluid ounce, about 14.2 mL in Britain and 14.8 mL in the United States. The extra volume matters to a cook following an Australian recipe abroad, where the same tablespoon of liquid ingredients would come up a quarter short. The figure used here is exactly 0.02 liter, and Wikipedia's article is tagged as needing more citations.

Sources: Wikipedia: Tablespoon; NIST SP 811 Appendix B.8

Australian Tablespoon conversion chart

1 Australian tablespoon expressed in every other volume unit:

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