States and territories of Australia

The states and mainland territories of the Commonwealth of Australia combine to make up the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Australia comprises six states and various territories; the Australian mainland is made up of five states and three territories (including small, somewhat anomalous Jervis Bay Territory), with the sixth state being located on the island of Tasmania to the south of the mainland. In addition, there are six island territories, known as external territories. Australia also 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.

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]
State/Territory name	Abbrev	ISO^[2]	Postal	Type	Capital (or largest settlement)	Population	Area (km²)
Ashmore and Cartier Islands				External		0	199
Australian Antarctic Territory				External	(Mawson Station)	1,000	5,896,500
Australian Capital Territory	ACT	AU-ACT	ACT	Territory	Canberra	373,100	2,358
Christmas Island		CX		External	Flying Fish Cove	2,072	135
Cocos (Keeling) Islands		CC		External	West Island	596	14
Coral Sea Islands				External	(Willis Island)	4	10
Heard Island and McDonald Islands		HM		External	(Atlas Cove)	0	372
Jervis Bay Territory			JBT	Territory	(Jervis Bay Village)	377	70
New South Wales	NSW	AU-NSW	NSW	State	Sydney	7,272,800	800,642
Norfolk Island		NF		External	Kingston	2,302	35
Northern Territory	NT	AU-NT	NT	Territory	Darwin	233,300	1,349,129
Queensland	Qld	AU-QLD	QLD	State	Brisbane	4,560,059	1,730,648
South Australia	SA	AU-SA	SA	State	Adelaide	1,650,600	983,482
Tasmania	Tas	AU-TAS	TAS	State	Hobart	512,100	68,401
Victoria	Vic	AU-VIC	VIC	State	Melbourne	5,603,100	227,416
Western Australia	WA	AU-WA	WA	State	Perth	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 of latitude. 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 colonies of Tasmania (established as a separate colony named Van Diemen's Land in 1825), South Australia (1836), New Zealand (1840),^[3] Victoria (1851) and Queensland (1859). The Swan River Colony (present-day city of Perth) was established in Western Australia in 1829. On Federation, the six colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania became original states of the new Commonwealth of Australia.

Legislative powers of the States are protected by the Australian constitution, 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 powers to legislate in the territories that it does not possess in the states.

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, 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[]

Entity	State/Territory type	Tie to the Queen	Domestic administrator	Head of Government	Upper House of Parliament	Lower House of Parliament	Member of Parliament
Entity	State/Territory type	Tie to the Queen	Domestic administrator	Head of Government	Upper House of Parliament	Lower House of Parliament	Upper house	Lower house^{[note 1]}
Commonwealth of Australia	Federal government	Direct	Governor-General	Prime Minister	Senate	House of Representatives	Senator	MP
South Australia	Federated state	Direct (established by Australia Act)	Governor	Premier	Legislative Council	House of Assembly	MLC	MHA
Tasmania						House of Assembly		MHA
New South Wales						Legislative Assembly		MLA
Victoria
Western Australia
Queensland					N/A (abolished 1922)		N/A	MP
Australian Capital Territory	Self-governing territory	None	Assembly and Chief Minister	Chief Minister	N/A			MLA
Northern Territory	Self-governing territory	Indirect (through Governor-General)	Administrator
Norfolk Island	External self-governing territory
Christmas Island	External territory			Mayor/Shire President		Shire Council		Councillor
Cocos (Keeling) Islands	External territory			Mayor/Shire President		Shire Council		Councillor
Note: ^ The abbreviation MP is an acceptable, and indeed more common, term for members of each lower house.

Governors and Administrators of states and territories[]

Main article: Governors of the Australian states

Post	Incumbent	Appointed
Governor of New South Wales	Bashir !Her Excellency Marie Bashir	02001-03-011 March 2001
Governor of Queensland	Wensley !His Excellency Paul de Jersey	02014-07-2929 July 2014
Governor of South Australia	Scarce !His Excellency Hieu Van Le	02014-09-011 September 2014
Governor of Tasmania	vacant
Governor of Victoria	Chernov !His Excellency Alex Chernov	02011-04-088 April 2011
Governor of Western Australia	vacant
Administrator of the Northern Territory	Thomas !Her Honour Sally Thomas	02011-10-3131 October 2011
Administrator of Norfolk Island	Pope !His Honour Neil Pope	02012-04-011 April 2012
Administrator of Australian Indian Ocean Territories (Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands)	Stanhope !His Honour Jon Stanhope	02012-10-055 October 2012

Premiers and Chief Ministers of states and territories[]

Main article: Premiers of the Australian states

Post	Incumbent	Political party	Appointed
Premier of New South Wales	Baird, MikeMike Baird MP	Liberal	02014-04-01April 2014
Premier of Queensland	Newman, CampbellCampbell Newman MP	Liberal National	02012-03-01March 2012
Premier of South Australia	Weatherill, JayJay Weatherill MHA	Labor	02011-10-01October 2011
Premier of Tasmania	Hodgman, WillWill Hodgman MP	Liberal	02014-03-01March 2014
Premier of Victoria	Napthine, DenisDenis Napthine MLA	Liberal	02013-03-01March 2013
Premier of Western Australia	Barnett, ColinColin Barnett MLA	Liberal	02008-09-01September 2008
Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory	Gallagher, KatyKaty Gallagher MLA	Labor	02011-05-01May 2011
Chief Minister of the Northern Territory	Giles, AdamAdam Giles MLA	Country Liberal	02013-03-01March 2013
Chief Minister of Norfolk Island	Snell, LisleLisle Snell MLA		02013-03-01March 2013
Mayor of Australian Indian Ocean Territories (Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands)	Councillor Pirus, BalmutBalmut Pirus		02013-03-01March 2013

State and territorial parliaments[]

Main article: Parliaments of the Australian states and territories

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[]

Main article: Australian court hierarchy

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[]

Main article: Law enforcement in Australia

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[]

Main article: Territorial evolution of Australia

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

Statistics[]

State / Territory	Land area			Population (2011 census)		Population density			% of population in capital
State / Territory	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[]


Adelaide
2673	Albany
1533	3588	Alice Springs
1578	3633	443	Uluru
2045	4349	3038	3254	Brisbane
2483	1943	2483	1223	3317	Broome
3352	5656	2457	2900	1716	2496	Cairns
1196	3846	3706	2751	1261	3275	2568	Canberra
3022	4614	1489	1932	3463	1803	2882	4195	Darwin
1001	3674	2534	2579	1944	3636	3251	918	4023	Hobart
3219	3787	1686	2129	3660	1045	3079	4392	827	4220	Kununurra
2783	5087	2505	2948	976	2840	740	1999	2930	2682	3127	Mackay
731	3404	2264	2309	1674	3124	2981	648	3753	609	3950	2412	Melbourne
2742	5106	1209	1652	1829	1834	1248	2561	1634	3075	1831	1296	2805	Mount Isa
2781	409	3696	3741	4457	2389	5764	3954	4205	3782	3378	5195	3512	4905	Perth
1412	3970	3830	2875	1001	3373	2495	286	4034	1142	4516	1926	872	2400	4078	Sydney

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

State and territory codes[]

State/Territory	Abbrev.	Call signs			Postal		Telephone numbers in Australia	Time zone
State/Territory	Abbrev.	AM/FM	TV	Amateur	Abbrev.	Postcode	Telephone numbers in Australia	Std	Summer
Australian Capital Territory	ACT	1xx(x)^{[nb 1]}	xx(x)Cn^{[nb 1]}	VK1xx^{[nb 1]}	ACT	02nn,^{[nb 2]} 26nn, 29nn	+61 2 62xx xxxx +61 2 61xx xxxx	+10	+11
New South Wales	NSW	2xx(x)	xx(x)Nn	VK2xx	NSW	1nnn,^{[nb 2]} 2nnn	+61 2 xxxx xxxx^{[nb 3]}	+10 (+9+¹⁄₂)	+11
Victoria	Vic	3xx(x)	xx(x)Vn	VK3xx	VIC	3nnn, 8nnn^{[nb 2]}	+61 3 xxxx xxxx^{[nb 3]}	+10	+11
Queensland	Qld	4xx(x)	xx(x)Qn	VK4xx	QLD	4nnn, 9nnn^{[nb 2]}	+61 7 xxxx xxxx	+10
South Australia	SA	5xx(x)	xx(x)Sn	VK5xx	SA	5nnn	+61 8 8xxx xxxx +61 8 7xxx xxxx	+9+¹⁄₂	+10+¹⁄₂
Western Australia	WA	6xx(x)	xx(x)Wn	VK6xx	WA	6nnn	+61 8 9xxx xxxx +61 8 6xxx xxxx	+8
Tasmania	Tas	7xx(x)	xx(x)Tn	VK7xx	TAS	7nnn	+61 3 6xxx xxxx	+10	+11
Northern Territory	NT	8xx(x)	xx(x)Dn	VK8xx	NT	08nn	+61 8 89xx xxxx	+9+¹⁄₂
External Territories
Norfolk Island		2xx(x)	xx(x)Nn	VK2xx	NSW	2899	+672 3 xx xxx	+11+¹⁄₂
Christmas Island		6xx(x)	xx(x)Wn	VK9xx	WA	6798	+61 8 9164 xxxx	+7
Cocos Island		6xx(x)	xx(x)Wn	VK9xx	WA	6799	+61 8 9162 xxxx	+6+¹⁄₂
Australian Antarctic Territory		none		VK0xx	TAS		+672 1	+6 to +8
Macquarie Island		none		VK0xx	TAS		+672 1	+10	+11
^ ^a ^b ^c A number of broadcast stations in the ACT have call signs allocated as if ACT were part of New South Wales. ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d This is used for some PO box and large users only. ^ ^a ^b Some exceptions apply to numbers in this state's number range.

References and notes[]

^ References and details on data provided in the table can be found within the individual state and territory articles.
^ ISO 3166-2:AU (ISO 3166-2 codes for the states and territories of Australia)
^ A.H. McLintock (ed), An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand", 3 vols, Wellington, NZ:R.E. Owen, Government Printer, 1966, vol 3 p. 526.'
^ "Jervis Bay Territory Governance and Administration". Although the Jervis Bay Territory is not part of the Australian Capital Territory, the laws of the ACT apply, insofar as they are applicable and, providing they are not inconsistent with an Ordinance, in the Territory by virtue of the "Jervis Bay Acceptance Act 1915". The Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport. http://www.regional.gov.au/territories/jervis_bay/governanceadministration.aspx. Retrieved 17 January 2013.

External links[]

CityMayors article

This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at States and territories of Australia. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.

[5] The abbreviation MP is an acceptable, and indeed more common, term for members of each lower house.

[ACT-6] A number of broadcast stations in the ACT have call signs allocated as if ACT were part of New South Wales.

[PO&c-7] This is used for some PO box and large users only.

[exceptions-8] Some exceptions apply to numbers in this state's number range.

[1] References and details on data provided in the table can be found within the individual state and territory articles.

[2] ISO 3166-2:AU (ISO 3166-2 codes for the states and territories of Australia)

[3] A.H. McLintock (ed), An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand", 3 vols, Wellington, NZ:R.E. Owen, Government Printer, 1966, vol 3 p. 526.'

[4] "Jervis Bay Territory Governance and Administration". Although the Jervis Bay Territory is not part of the Australian Capital Territory, the laws of the ACT apply, insofar as they are applicable and, providing they are not inconsistent with an Ordinance, in the Territory by virtue of the "Jervis Bay Acceptance Act 1915". The Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport. http://www.regional.gov.au/territories/jervis_bay/governanceadministration.aspx. Retrieved 17 January 2013.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[note 1]

[nb 1]

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States and territories of Australia

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