New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of Australia, and prior to that the oldest British colony in Australia. Founded in 1788, it originally comprised most of the Australian mainland, but over the 19th century parts of it were succesively separated to form separate British colonies: Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia. It joined with these other colonies (and also with Tasmania, which was never part of New South Wales) in 1901 to form the Commonwealth of Australia.
The capital of New South Wales is Sydney, which is Australia's largest and oldest city, with a population of 4 million. Other cities and towns include Newcastle, Wollongong, Albury, Broken Hill, Dubbo, Tamworth, Armidale, Ebor, Lismore, and Coffs Harbour.
New South Wales contains two Federal enclaves: the Australian Capital Territory, and the Jervis Bay Territory.
New South Wales can be divided physically into three sections:
- A thin coastal strip, with climates warming from cool temperate on the far south coast to subtropical near the Queensland border.
- The mountainous areas of the Great Dividing Range and the high country surrounding them. Whilst not particularly steep, many peaks rise above 2000 metres, with the highest Mount Kosciuszko at 2228 metres.
- The dry, mostly flat, arid plains that make up the majority of the state, but in which very few people live. Some parts of far western New South Wales are as remote as any in Australia.
New South Wales is a constitutional monarchy, with the Queen of the United Kingdom as its head of state; the Queen is represented in the state by a Governor. The State Parliament is composed of two houses, the Legislative Assembly (lower house), and the Legislative Council (upper house). The head of the State government is the Premier of New South Wales, currently Bob Carr.
State law is available at [1].
The official state website is [2].