How did we ever live without hashtags? The Australian hashtag love affair started in the early days of Twitter. Since then, it has infiltrated social media platforms from LinkedIn to Instagram to TikTok and even Pinterest. We’re so enamoured with their mini-megaphone capabilities, it’s rare to see a post go out on social media without one or more of them dangling off the end.
We wanted to do a deep dive into the most popular hashtags to give marketing teams insight into what drives interest in Aussie content. We’ve pulled the list from our Meltwater Explore tool for a better understanding of hashtag success in 2022. It includes Twitter hashtags, Instagram hashtags, and TikTok hashtags.
If you want to pick the right Instagram hashtag, boost your tweets, improve your social media management, or are generally curious about trending hashtags in Australia, read on for tips and hints on using hashtags to amplify your brand.
Tip: Check out the most trending hashtags in South Africa. We also have a generic hashtag guide that tells you how to hashtag on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as well as a blog explaining what TikTok is and how businesses can make use of TikTok. We've also got you covered in case you're looking for the top Australian TikTokers or the top Australian YouTube influencers.
Table of Contents
Top 30 trending hashtags: Australia 2022
Most trending hashtags in Australia for politics
Most trending hashtags in Australia for crypto
Most trending hashtags in Australia for news and current events
Most trending hashtags in Australia for arts and entertainment
Top 30 trending hashtags: Australia 2022
Using the right hashtags is a great way to tap into the top Twitter trends and reach a wider audience with your tweets. They can also boost your Instagram Stories and improve your follower count in real time. Engagement is a common topic for marketing, so it’s worth taking a closer look at Australian hashtags for clues on how to improve every post.
Tip for more engagement: Not only hashtags but also the right timing has a great impact on your posts' performance. Check out the best times to post on Instagram in Australia to get that extra boost.
Let’s start with the ultimate list of the top 30 Australian trending hashtags for 2022. Keep reading because next we’ll categorise this list to show the top themes emerging.
| Rank | Hashtag | Total Post Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | #auspol | 3,765,537 |
| 2 | #ausvotes | 496,171 |
| 3 | #nft | 478,611 |
| 4 | #covid19 | 337,759 |
| 5 | #nftcommunity | 328,377 |
| 6 | #nfts | 299,710 |
| 7 | #insiders | 282,137 |
| 8 | #australia | 262,280 |
| 9 | #alboforpm | 216,528 |
| 10 | #crypto | 199,096 |
| 11 | #nftgiveaway | 177,372 |
| 12 | #ukraine | 174,595 |
| 13 | #abc730 | 174,445 |
| 14 | #ausvotes2022 | 160,168 |
| 15 | #9news | 152,305 |
| 16 | #nswpol | 148,383 |
| 17 | #bitcoin | 146,860 |
| 18 | #nftart | 134,242 |
| 19 | #breaking | 126,076 |
| 20 | #7news | 124,626 |
| 21 | #eth | 123,633 |
| 22 | #photography | 121,024 |
| 23 | #auspol2022 | 108,095 |
| 24 | #bts | 105,166 |
| 25 | #qanda | 102,851 |
| 26 | #springst | 99,036 |
| 27 | #art | 94,860 |
| 28 | #melbourne | 87,450 |
| 29 | #russia | 85,901 |
| 30 | #sydney | 84,446 |
Here’s the first big surprise. Sports do not factor into content using the top 30 trending hashtags in Australia. If you came here to compare the popularity of Ben Hunt, Dane Gagai, Billy Slater, and Andrew Johns, you’ll be disappointed.
What does capture the attention of fans of the hashtag? It turns out politics and crypto are what keep us busy in our tweets and ’grams.
Most trending hashtags in Australia for politics
| Category Rank | Overall Rank | Hashtag | Total Post Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | #auspol | 3,765,537 |
| 2 | 2 | #ausvotes | 496,171 |
| 3 | 9 | #alboforpm | 216,528 |
| 4 | 14 | #ausvotes2022 | 160,168 |
| 5 | 16 | #nswpol | 148,383 |
| 6 | 23 | #auspol2022 | 108,095 |
| 7 | 26 | #springst | 99,036 |
Maybe it was because 2022 was an election year, but post for post more hashtags were dedicated to politics than anything else. Let’s decode each one.
- #auspol is short for Australian politics. If you want an update on the pollies, follow this tag to find all the political tweets.
- #ausvotes is used for tweets or any social media post about an election.
- #alboforpm worked as a mini slogan for Anthony Albanese, who was elected Prime Minister of Australia.
- #ausvotes2022 had a strong showing and helped people in their search for current election news.
- #nswpol showed people from New South Wales each post and all the tweets about local politics.
- #auspol2022 was another hashtag helping people search for national political news for 2022.
- #springst refers to Victorian politics and the Andrews government. The Victorian Parliament is located on Spring Street in Melbourne.
Most trending hashtags in Australia for crypto
| Category Rank | Overall Rank | Hashtag | Total Post Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | #nft | 478,611 |
| 2 | 5 | #nftcommunity | 328,377 |
| 3 | 6 | #nfts | 299,710 |
| 4 | 10 | #crypto | 199,096 |
| 5 | 11 | #nftgiveaway | 177,372 |
| 6 | 17 | #bitcoin | 146,860 |
| 7 | 18 | #nftart | 134,242 |
| 8 | 21 | #eth | 123,633 |
Once Oz social media fans were done discussing their political fortunes, the chat quickly turned to all things crypto. We had a LOT to say about new ways to find wealth.
Here’s a breakdown of the most popular crypto tweets and social posts in Australia.
- #nft stands for non-fungible token, the most popular topic in the category.
- #nftcommunity is the crowd of people participating in the creator economy and investing in NFTs.
- #nfts is the plural of #nft.
- #crypto is all about cryptocurrency or digital currencies like Bitcoin.
- #nftgiveaway signals a content creator is running a contest for their NFTs.
- #bitcoin is the world’s first successful cryptocurrency.
- #nftart is used when discussing the drawings, music, or artwork asset used to make an NFT.
- #eth is short for Ethereum, which is commonly known for its native cryptocurrency called ether.
Most trending hashtags in Australia for news and current events
| Category Rank | Overall Rank | Hashtag | Total Post Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | #ausvotes | 496,171 |
| 2 | 4 | #covid19 | 337,759 |
| 3 | 7 | #insiders | 282,137 |
| 4 | 12 | #ukraine | 174,595 |
| 5 | 13 | #abc730 | 174,445 |
| 6 | 15 | #9news | 152,305 |
| 7 | 19 | #breaking | 126,076 |
| 8 | 20 | #7news | 124,626 |
| 9 | 25 | #qanda | 102,851 |
| 10 | 29 | #russia | 85,901 |
Spend any time on Twitter and you’ll quickly discover news bleeds into politics. You’re as likely to see Jo Dyer taking on Christian Porter as you are to hear about Harvey Norman founder Gerry Harvey espouse on the topic of how to fix Australia.
Regardless, Australians love to tweet in real time when they’re getting their news fix.
- #ausvotes refers broadly to elections and the federal election was one of the biggest Australian news stories in 2022.
- #covid19 is the hashtag for anything to do with the pandemic, which seemed like just about everything on Twitter.
- #insiders is arguably Australia's most popular political affairs show.
- #ukraine is used to discuss the Russian invasion and the war on Ukraine.
- #abc730 is Australia's premier daily current affairs program shown at 7:30pm on ABC TV.
- #9news refers to news programming on channel 9.
- #breaking is for newly received information, usually news, happening anywhere at any time.
- #7news refers to news programming on channel 7.
- #qanda is now called Q+A, but was formerly known as Q&A. It’s an Australian television panel-discussion program broadcast on ABC Television on Monday nights. Australia Twitter is out in force to debate, support, disagree and throw shade at what the expert panel is saying.
- #russia is almost always, but not always, related to the Russian war on Ukraine.
Most trending hashtags in Australia for arts and entertainment
It’s the smallest category in the top 30, with notable omissions – no sports, no travel hashtags, and no shopping.
It’s also the category where your Instagram followers can learn about all your branded hashtags because you can stuff more of them into every post than on tweets, which have a tight character count.
| Category Rank | Overall Rank | Hashtag | Total Post Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 | #photography | 121,024 |
| 2 | 24 | #bts | 105,166 |
| 3 | 27 | #art | 94,860 |
For location-based hashtags, there’s no mention of Perth, Hobart, Darwin, Brisbane, Adelaide, or perhaps most surprising, Canberra. #sydney and #melbourne make showings in the top 30 list but Aussie social media champs aren’t too worried about tying their tweets to a place.
- #photography is a testament to how well photographers use trending hashtags. Australian Instagram is a great place to find some of the best work of influencers.
- #bts pays homage to BTS, a South Korean boy band also known as the Bangtan Boys.
- #art is a generic, catch-all hashtag for anything to do with art and culture.
Keeping on top of Australian trending hashtags
For more information on how to use the relevant hashtags for your brand, get Meltwater’s Hashtag guide for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. You’ll learn everything from how many hashtags to use to knowing how their use differs for each social media platform.
If you’re a marketer who wants to stay on top of your social listening and increase the effectiveness of your brand engagement, get in touch with Meltwater Australia by filling out the form below.
