Australian Made Personal Organisers

When I think of Australia at this time of year, I think of the hot 'summer' sun, Christmas on the beach in shorts. I'm not sure I could adjust to all my seasons being the opposite to what I've been used to for many years....

With different seasons for the months of the year compared to us in the northern hemisphere comes the problem of your diary is going to be very different to say a UK or US one. Different national holidays, school terms being very very different... your summer holiday (vacation) with Christmas in the middle of it!.

However, it is not a problem, because there is a local company (Poco Profile) that has been producing some very nice personal organisers and diary refills since 1989, these days they are all typeset and printed in house. The size is the same as Filofax Personal and Pocket. Victoria at Poco Profile kindly sent me a couple of samples of their personal week on two page diaries in both bright white paper (70 gsm) and in 100% recycled paper(80 gsm). I have to say at first I thought I had two exactly the same until I noticed the difference on the front sheet.

The recycled paper is very very slightly greyer than the non-recycled version, but not noticeable to the naked eye.

I quite like the layout of the main part of the diary. It groups Saturday and Sunday together, which gives the 'working' week quite a bit of space for each day. It's only in English so there is plenty of room to write in each day. The diary also boasts over 350 events listed, they don't get in the way as you will see in the picture below.

It also includes a monthly date calendar for the current and next month in the header to the pages.

Another great set of pages are a year in month pages, for birthdays and anniversaries I guess, although you could use these pages for other uses.

The refill in full contains the following:

• 2011 calendar
• 2010 / 2012 calendars
• Public Holidays - Important Dates for Australia and individual states
• Government School Holidays 2011
• Phases of the Moon for Australian Eastern Standard Time
• Month pages (as mentioned above)
• Important Contacts (see picture below)
• Personal information, including Organ Transplant permission. (see picture below)
• Conversion Factors
• Dairy starting 23 December 2010 through to 4 January 2012

Now before you ask, am I going to use one of these in my personal Filofax? I have friends in Oz so it will be useful to know what the public holidays are there so it help with knowing if they are going to be about during 'the day' However,  it would be a shame for the other one of these to sit in my desk drawer for the year. So would you like to win one of them? Here is a question for you to answer:


What public holidays occur in Australia on 14th March 2011, the winner will be the closest to the correct answer.

The winner will receive the refill of their choice (non recycled or recycled) by post, although I suspect it might not arrive before 1 Jan 2011. Winner will be declared on Friday 24th Dec at 12 noon (French Time). Please email your answer to p h i l o f a x y at g m a i l dot c o m (reconstructing the address in the usual way)

But before you dive off to Google in search of the answer!! Go and take a look at the Poco Profile website and see their full range of organisers, refills and other leather goods. They offer delivery to overseas addresses at cost price. Overseas orders do not attract local sales taxes etc. See their On-line shop for full details.

One of their own accessories I quite like is the 'Today' page marker with a sleeve for your own notes to be inserted. Their everyday pages are also very contemporary in design and will of course suit any Filofax Personal or Pocket organiser. 

Poco Profiles obviously have a great following in Australia judging by their suggestions page

Again thank you to Victoria at Poco Profile for the samples.