Why would you need metric conversion ? Didn't they mean "convention" ?

Question

"In 1947 Australia signed the Metre Convention making metric units legal for use in Australia, and in 1970 passed the Metric Conversion Act with the aim of making the metric system the sole system of legal measurements in Australia."

According to the above, Australia possessed metric well before 1970.


Was the word "conversion" a bowdlerised form of the word "convention" ?

Answer 1

Conventions and conversions are not the same thing, my friend. A convention is where a group of people together decide on a specific action, like nominating a party presidential candidate or deciding on a government policy that effects all people within a country.

Conversion, as in this case, means conversion tables made easily accessible to the public to better become familiar to the new system of measurement.

Conversion from inches to meters, from pounds to dollars, etc. A Metric Conversion Act installs government guidelines by which the government encourages and recognizes the new system of conversion tables.

In other words, a government convention was held to advance the use of conversions from inches to meter, pounds to dollars, etc.

Answer 2

It doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't use metric at all; conversion just means that the metric system is going to be the only system that is used in Australia.