We consider the task of recognition of Australian vehicle number plates (also called license plates or registration plates in other countries). A system for Australian number plate recognition must cope with wide variations in the appearance of the plates. Each state uses its own range of designs with font variations between the designs. There are special designs issued for significant events such as the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Also, vehicle owners may place the plates inside glass covered frames or use plates made of non-standard materials. These issues compound the complexity of automatic number plate recognition, making existing approaches inadequate. We have developed a system that incorporates a novel combination of image processing and artificial neural network technologies to successfully locate and read Australian vehicle number plates in digital images. Commercial application of the system is envisaged.