New South Wales

New South Wales

State flag (Full size[?]) Coat of Arms (Full size[?])
Capital	Sydney
Area — Land — Marine — Total	800 642 km² 8 802 km² 809 444 km²
Population (2002) Density	6 657 400 8.32/km²
Time zone	UTC+10 (except during daylight saving time—UTC+11)
Highest point	Mt Kosciuszko (2 228 m)
ISO 3166-2 code:	AU-NS

New South Wales is Australia's most populous and historic state, located in the southeast, north of Victoria. Also known as the Premier State, it was founded in 1788, it originally comprised much of the Australian mainland, but over the 19th century much of it was succesively separated to form the British colonies of: Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia along with its Northern Territory. In 1901 these colonies plus Western Australia and Tasmania voted to form an independent nation called the "Commonwealth of Australia".

Known the world over for the picturesque harbour of its capital, Sydney, as well as combining the heart of the Australian financial sector with a population that loves the outdoor life from beaches to caving, to riding or sailing. Its three main cities from north to south are Newcastle, Sydney, and Wollongong which all lie along the coast; other cities and towns include Albury, Broken Hill[?], Dubbo[?], Tamworth[?], Armidale, Ebor, Lismore[?], and Coffs Harbour.

New South Wales contains two Federal enclaves: the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), and the Jervis Bay Territory. The national capital is Canberra in the ACT.

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 England 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] (http://www.austlii.edu.au/databases.html#nsw).

The official state website is [2] (http://www.nsw.gov.au).

Local Government Areas of New South Wales