States and territories of Australia

Australian States and Territories
Animated map showing boundary changes
Category	Federated states (6) Federal territories (3) External territories (7)
Location	Commonwealth of Australia
Populations	0 (Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Heard and McDonald Islands) – 7,272,800 (New South Wales)
Areas	10 km2 (3.9 sq mi) (Coral Sea Islands) – 5,896,500 km2 (2,276,700 sq mi) (Australian Antarctic Territory)
Subdivisions	Local government areas Cadastral divisions

Australia is a federation consisting of six states, three federal territories and seven external territories. The Australian mainland consists of five of the six federated states (with the sixth state, Tasmania, being located on an island in close proximity to the mainland) and three federal territories (including the small, somewhat anomalous Jervis Bay Territory) which constitute the world's sixth-largest country by total area. In addition, there are six island territories, known as external territories. Three of the external territories are inhabited, and the other three, besides non-permanent scientists, are uninhabited. Australia additionally claims part of Antarctica as the Australian Antarctic Territory.

All states and two of the three internal territories have their own parliaments and administer themselves; all remaining territories are administered by the federal government, but with Norfolk Island having some degree of self-government.

External territories, states and territories

Reference map for States and Territories of Australia

Western Australia Northern Territory South Australia Queensland New South Wales Australian Capital Territory Victoria Tasmania Indian Ocean Timor Sea Gulf of Carpentaria Arafura Sea Great Australian Bight Tasman Sea Bass Strait Coral Sea ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● South Pacific Ocean Southern Ocean Great Barrier Reef

States and Territories of Australia^[1]

Flag	State/Territory name	Abbrev	ISO[2]	Postal	Type	Capital (or largest settlement)	Population	Area (km²)
[n 1]	Ashmore and Cartier Islands				External	(Offshore anchorage)	5000000000000000000♠0	199
[n 1]	Australian Antarctic Territory	AAT	AQ[n 2]		External	Davis Station	7003100000000000000♠1,000[n 3]	5,896,500
	Australian Capital Territory	ACT	AU-ACT	ACT	Territory	Canberra	7005373100000000000♠373,100	2,358
	Christmas Island		CX		External	Flying Fish Cove	7003207200000000000♠2,072	135
	Cocos (Keeling) Islands		CC		External	West Island	7002596000000000000♠596	14
[n 1]	Coral Sea Islands				External	(Willis Island)	7000400000000000000♠4[n 4]	10
[n 1]	Heard Island and McDonald Islands	HIMI	HM		External	(Atlas Cove)	5000000000000000000♠0	372
[n 1]	Jervis Bay Territory	JBT		JBT	Territory	(Jervis Bay Village)	7002377000000000000♠377	70
	New South Wales	NSW	AU-NSW	NSW	State	Sydney	7006727280000000000♠7,272,800	800,642
	Norfolk Island		NF		External	Kingston	7003230200000000000♠2,302	35
	Northern Territory	NT	AU-NT	NT	Territory	Darwin	7005233300000000000♠233,300	1,349,129
	Queensland	Qld	AU-QLD	QLD	State	Brisbane	7006456005900000000♠4,560,059	1,730,648
	South Australia	SA	AU-SA	SA	State	Adelaide	7006165060000000000♠1,650,600	983,482
	Tasmania	Tas	AU-TAS	TAS	State	Hobart	7005512100000000000♠512,100	68,401
	Victoria	Vic	AU-VIC	VIC	State	Melbourne	7006560310000000000♠5,603,100	227,416
	Western Australia	WA	AU-WA	WA	State	Perth	7006245140000000000♠2,451,400	2,529,875

See also: List of State codes

Australia has had three now-defunct territories in its history:

• From 1926 to 1931, the Northern Territory was divided into Central Australia and North Australia, with the border at the 20th parallel south. Both territories were reincorporated as the Northern Territory at the end of this period.
• From 1949 to 1975, the Territory of Papua and New Guinea was a territory of Australia, remaining so until the independence of the country of Papua New Guinea.

Background and overview

The states originated as separate British colonies prior to Federation in 1901. The Colony of New South Wales was founded in 1788 and originally comprised much of the Australian mainland, as well as Lord Howe Island, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, and Van Diemen's Land, in addition to the area currently referred to as the state of New South Wales. During the 19th century, large areas were successively separated to form the Colony of Tasmania (initially established as a separate colony named Van Diemen's Land in 1825), the Colony of Western Australia (initially established as the smaller Swan River Colony in 1829), the Province of South Australia (1836), the Colony of New Zealand (1840),^[3] the Victoria Colony (1851) and the Colony of Queensland (1859). Upon Federation, the six colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania became the founding states of the new Commonwealth of Australia.

Legislative powers of the states are protected by the Australian constitution, section 107, and under the principle of federalism Commonwealth legislation only applies to the states where permitted by the constitution. The territories, by contrast, are from a constitutional perspective directly subject to the Commonwealth Government. The Australian Parliament has power to legislate in the territories that it does not possess in the states: Constitution section 122.

Most of the territories are directly administered by the Commonwealth Government, while three (the Northern Territory, the Australian Capital Territory and Norfolk Island) have some degree of self-government. In the self-governing territories, the Australian Parliament retains the full power to legislate, and can override laws made by the territorial institutions, which it has done on rare occasions. For the purposes of Australian (and joint Australia-New Zealand) intergovernmental bodies, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are treated as states.

Furthermore, the distribution of powers between the Commonwealth and the territories is different from that between the Commonwealth and the states. In the Northern Territory, the Commonwealth retains the power to directly administer uranium mining and Aboriginal lands – powers which it does not possess with respect to the states.

Each state has a Governor, appointed by the Queen, which by convention she does on the advice of the state Premier. The Administrators of the Northern Territory and Norfolk Island are, by contrast, appointed by the Governor-General. The Australian Capital Territory has neither a Governor nor an Administrator, but the Governor-General exercises some powers that in other jurisdictions are exercised by the Governor of a state or Administrator of a territory, such as the power to dissolve the Legislative Assembly.

Jervis Bay Territory is unique in being the only non-self-governing internal territory. Until 1989, it was administered as if it were a part of the ACT, although it has always been a separate territory. Under the terms of the Jervis Bay Territory Acceptance Act, the laws of the ACT apply to the Jervis Bay Territory insofar as they are applicable and providing they are not inconsistent with an Ordinance.^[4] Although residents of the Jervis Bay Territory are generally subject to laws made by the ACT Legislative Assembly, they are not represented in the Assembly. They are represented in the Parliament of Australia as part of the Electoral Division of Fraser in the ACT and by the ACT's two Senators. In other respects, the territory is administered directly by the Federal Government through the Territories portfolio.

Each state has a bicameral parliament except Queensland, which abolished its upper house in 1922. The lower house is called the Legislative Assembly, except in South Australia and Tasmania, where it is called the House of Assembly. Tasmania is the only state to use proportional representation for elections to its lower house; all others elect members from single member constituencies, using preferential voting. The upper house is called the Legislative Council and is generally elected from multi-member constituencies using proportional representation. The three self-governing territories, the ACT, the Northern Territory, and Norfolk Island, each have unicameral Legislative Assemblies.

The head of government of each state is called the Premier, appointed by the state's Governor. In normal circumstances, the Governor will appoint as Premier whoever leads the party or coalition which exercises control of the lower house (in the case of Queensland, the only house) of the state Parliament. However, in times of constitutional crisis, the Governor can appoint someone else as Premier. The head of government of the self-governing internal territories is called the Chief Minister. The Northern Territory's Chief Minister, in normal circumstances whoever controls the Legislative Assembly, is appointed by the Administrator.

Comparative terminology

Governors and Administrators of states and territories

Premiers and Chief Ministers of states and territories

State and territorial parliaments

• Parliament of New South Wales
• Parliament of Queensland
• Parliament of South Australia
• Parliament of Tasmania
• Parliament of Victoria
• Parliament of Western Australia
• Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
• Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly
• Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly

State and territory supreme courts

• Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory
• Supreme Court of New South Wales
• Supreme Court of the Northern Territory
• Supreme Court of Queensland
• Supreme Court of South Australia
• Supreme Court of Tasmania
• Supreme Court of Victoria
• Supreme Court of Western Australia
• Supreme Court of Norfolk Island

State and territory police forces

• Australian Capital Territory Police (performed by Australian Federal Police)
• New South Wales Police
• Northern Territory Police
• Queensland Police
• South Australia Police
• Tasmania Police
• Victoria Police
• Western Australia Police

State and territory borders

• Australian Capital Territory border
• New South Wales borders
• Northern Territory borders
• Queensland borders
• South Australian borders
• Tasmanian borders
• Victorian borders
• Western Australian border

Statistics

State / Territory	Land area			Population (2011 census)		Population density			% of population in capital
	km2	sq mi		Number		/km2	/sq mi		%
Australian Capital Territory	2,358.0	910.4	8th	357,222	7th	137.53	356.2	1st	99.6%	1st
New South Wales	801,321.7	309,392.0	5th	6,917,658	1st	8.44	21.9	3rd	63.0%	5th
Victoria	227,417.5	87,806.4	6th	5,354,042	2nd	22.00	57.0	2nd	71.0%	4th
Queensland	1,734,218.7	669,585.6	2nd	4,332,739	3rd	2.26	5.9	5th	46.0%	7th
South Australia	985,288.7	380,422.1	4th	1,596,572	5th	1.56	4.0	6th	73.5%	2nd
Western Australia	2,531,572.0	977,445.4	1st	2,239,170	4th	0.79	2.0	7th	73.4%	3rd
Tasmania	67,914.3	26,221.9	7th	495,354	6th	7.08	18.3	4th	41.0%	8th
Northern Territory	1,352,187.6	522,082.6	3rd	211,945	8th	0.15	0.39	8th	54.0%	6th

Distance table

Distance in kilometres from the corresponding city on the X-Y axis.

State and territory codes

See also

• ISO 3166-2:AU, the ISO codes for the states and territories of Australia.
• Australian regional rivalries
• List of Australian demonyms
• List of proposed states of Australia

Notes

References

External links

• Local government in Australia less powerful than in other countries

States and territories of Australia States and Mainland Territories Australian Capital Territory Jervis Bay Territory New South Wales Northern Territory Queensland South Australia Tasmania Victoria Western Australia External Territories Ashmore and Cartier Islands Australian Antarctic Territory Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Coral Sea Islands Heard Island and McDonald Islands Norfolk Island Former Territories Central Australia (1927–1931) North Australia (1927–1931) Papua New Guinea (1949–1975)

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