New South Wales

New South Wales
flag	coat of arms

( Details )	( Details )
Basic data
Capital :	Sydney
Area :	800,642 km²
Residents :	7,480,228 (2016)
Population density :	9.42 inhabitants per km²
ISO 3166-2 :	`AU-NSW`
Time zone:	UTC + 10 AEST UTC + 11 AEDT (October to March)
The highest point:	Mount Kosciuszko 2,228 m
Official Website:	www.nsw.gov.au
politics
Governor :	Margaret Beazley
Prime Minister :	Gladys Berejiklian ( Liberals )
Parliament seats:	50 ( House of Representatives ) 12 ( Senate )
map

New South Wales [ ˈnjuː ˌsaʊθ ˈweɪlz ] ( German New South Wales , more rarely New South Wales , abbreviation: NSW ) is a federal state in southeast Australia with Sydney as its capital. It borders Victoria in the south, South Australia in the west and Queensland in the north. In the southeastern part of New South Wales encloses the Australian Capital Territory . With around 7.5 million inhabitants, almost a third of the population of Australia, it is the most populous state in Australia.

geography

New South Wales is located on the southeast coast of Australia with wide flat plains in the west, the Great Dividing Range with the highlands of New England in the north, the Blue Mountains in the middle and the highest mountain range in Australia, the Snowy Mountains with Mount Kosciuszko (2228 m ), in the south. The total area of this state is 800,642 km²; it is about three times the size of Great Britain . The Murray River , the second longest river in Australia, has its source in the Snowy Mountains and forms the border with Victoria. The Darling River , created from the headwaters of the Culgoa River (which flows from Queensland in a south-easterly direction to New South Wales) and Barwon River , flows into it, and with its headwaters forms the longest river system in Australia.

New South Wales is bordered by the states of Queensland in the north, South Australia in the west and Victoria in the south. The Tasman Sea is on the east coast .

history

New South Wales was discovered in 1770 by the English navigator Captain James Cook . The name goes back to him because he compared the landforms there with those of South Wales and thus gave its name to the first British colony in Australia. The first European fleet ( First Fleet ) with 11 ships of the Royal Navy under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip landed in Port Jackson (Sydney) on January 26th, 1788. 1030 people, mainly convicts and their guards, had the task in the convict colony Australia to found a colony. In the first few years there was hunger because no plows or draft animals had been brought with them, the convicts had little knowledge of agriculture, the plants they brought with them soon died and the soil proved to be poorly productive.

The first contacts with the native Aborigines were considered friendly; so Bennelong was a mediator between cultures. In 1790, the New South Wales Corps reached Australia with the Second Fleet , which later went down in history with the rum rebellion against William Bligh . It was not until 1792 that the colony was almost able to support itself and from 1793 the first free settlers came.

In 1809, Lachlan Macquarie took over the administration of the colony as governor of New South Wales ; Extensive infrastructure measures were implemented during this period.

New South Wales originally comprised the whole of eastern Australia. Tasmania was established as an independent colony in 1825 . In 1836 South Australia , 1851 Victoria and 1859 Queensland were no longer administered by the colonial government of New South Wales, but became independent colonies. In 1901 the British colonies merged to form the Australian Confederation . In 1911 the Australian Capital Territory (abbreviation: ACT, with Canberra , the newly created capital of Australia) was spun off, in 1915 the Jervis Bay Territory .

States and territories over time

Goulburn was founded in 1833 as the first inland location independent of Sydney .

population

The original inhabitants of New South Wales were Aborigines, among others from the Darug and Eora peoples , who came to Australia about 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. After initially introduced diseases such as smallpox killed more than 50% of the Aborigines, violent clashes with settlers and a wave of massacres were responsible for further deaths. Today, with around 130,000 inhabitants, they only make up around 2.5% of the population.

New South Wales is the oldest and after Victoria the second most densely populated state in Australia. There are approximately 7.5 million inhabitants, mostly on the coast and in Sydney . That is about a third of the total Australian population, which underscores the economic importance.

rank	city	Population July 2016
1	Sydney	4,321,534
2	Newcastle	322.279
3	Central Coast	307.740
4th	Wollongong	261,897
5	Albury - Wodonga	83.102
6th	Maitland	78.019
7th	Wagga Wagga	48.263
8th	Coffs Harbor	48.221
9	Port Macquarie	44,811
10	orange	37.181
11	Dubbo	34,335
12	Tamworth	33,882
13	Bathurst	33,581
14th	Nowra	30,856
15th	Blue Mountains - Katoomba	29,320

development
Census year	population
1996	6.006.206
2001	6,326,579
2006	6,549,179
2011	6,917,658
2016	7,480,228

Administrative division

New South Wales is divided into 14 regions:

Central West (CW)
Far West (FW)
Hunter (HT)
Illawarra (IL)
Mid-North Coast (NC)
Murray (MR)
Murrumbidgee (MG)
North Western (NW)
Northern Rivers (NR)
Richmond Tweed (RT)
South Eastern (SE)
Sydney Inner (SI)
Sydney Outer (SO)
Sydney Surrounds (SS)

There are also 152 local self- government areas , see Local Government Areas in New South Wales

At the level of the cadastral units, New South Wales is divided into 141 counties , which are further subdivided into 7300 (historically 7419) parishes and at the lowest level into Hundreds .

Climate and vegetation

New South Wales has a share of different climate zones, with the southern coastal regions having a cool, temperate maritime climate that gradually shifts to the subtropics towards the north . In the low mountain ranges, a temperate climate with cool winters and relatively mild summers predominates. In the greater part of the state across the interior and the east, however, there is an arid and semi-arid climate of continental character. The annual precipitation decreases from 1500 mm on the coast to less than 200 mm in the interior, whereas the temperature increases from the coast to the interior. The vegetation follows this gradation of precipitation with dense eucalyptus forests , open shrub and finally grass steppes up to the area of semi-desert areas. The Great Dividing Range, a mountain range in a north-south direction, is a special case: Here the precipitation is higher and the temperatures fluctuate more strongly. The Australian Alps in the south have an alpine climate and are partly above the tree line. Snow and frost sometimes occur here even in summer.

New South Wales is heavily influenced by the Southern Oscillation : Wet years with good wheat yields are repeatedly replaced by periods of drought caused by El Niño .

The warmest months are January and February; it is coolest in July.

economy

New South Wales is the most important state in Australia economically with significant deposits of lead , coal , copper , zinc , silver , gold and other ores . In 1875, the government agency Geological Survey of New South Wales was created for better exploration and supervision of the mining industry . Sheep and cattle breeding in the west as well as wheat cultivation and fruit crops in irrigated areas are also important . There is also an internationally known wine-growing region, the Hunter Valley . In the coastal area are the important industrial locations Sydney , Newcastle and Wollongong . In addition, Sydney is the seat of the Australian financial center and has large settlements of technology companies in North-Ryde .