Australia: Regions/States/Territories

Australian Capital Territory

The Australian Capital Territory occupies, by Australian standards, a tiny area (2,358km2/910mi2), and is wholly surrounded by New South Wales. It’s dominated by Canberra, Australia’s capital city, and has a population of around 345,000, the vast majority of whom live in and around Canberra.

Small towns in the ACT include Hall, Naas, Tharwa and Williamsdale. There’s a modest amount of agricultural land (dairy cattle, sheep and some vineyards) and a large area of national park (Namadgi National Park), much of it forested and mountainous.

The ACT has internal self-government, but doesn’t have the legislative independence of the Australian states. Its major industries, by far, are government and public service, and others include advanced technology (including communications, computing and electronics), hospitality, research and development, and tourism.

New South Wales

New South Wales is Australia’s oldest and most populous state, covering 809,444km2 (312,445mi2), and is home to over 6.8 million people. It lies in the south-east of Australia, north of Victoria and south of Queensland. Its three main cities, from north to south, are Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong, all on the coast. Sydney is by far the most significant city (not just in New South Wales, but in Australia). Important New South Wales towns include Albury, Armidale, Broken Hill, Coffs Harbour, Dubbo, Lismore, Nowra and Tamworth.

New South Wales contains two Federal enclaves: the Australian Capital Territory (see above) and the Jervis Bay Territory. Jervis Bay (pop. around 750) was purchased from New South Wales so that Canberra would have access to the sea. It’s a natural harbour, situated 150km (95mi) south of Sydney, and is a separate territory from the ACT, but is treated as part of it for most practical purposes.

New South Wales is divided geographically into four sections: a narrow coastal strip, with climates ranging from cool temperate in the south to subtropical towards the Queensland border; the mountainous Great Dividing Range, with many peaks over 1,000m (3,280ft) and the highest, Mount Kosciuszko, reaching 2,229m (7,308ft); the agricultural plains that cover much of the state, with a much lower population than the coastal strip; and the thinly populated dry plains of the north-west.

New South Wales’s economy is based around agricultural and pastoral industries, large coal reserves, a varied manufacturing sector and sophisticated service industries. The agricultural and mining sectors earn almost half of the state’s export revenues. The major manufacturing products are chemicals, electrical goods, fertilisers, machinery, metal products and processed foods.

The Northern Territory

The Northern Territory lies in the central northern part of Australia and has only 1 per cent of the country’s population (around 200,000, often known as Territorians), despite covering a sixth of the Australian continent, 1,420,968km2 (548,495mi2). Sizeable settlements are rare and include the capital Darwin, nearby Palmerston, Katherine (near the bottom of the Top End, see below) and Alice Springs, in the desert 1,500km (935mi) to the south. Small settlements are scattered around much of the Northern Territory, but the larger centres are all found on the state’s one sealed road, the Stuart Highway (known locally as ‘the track’), linking Darwin to South Australia.

The Northern Territory is home to some spectacular rock formations and scenery, which are major tourist attractions. Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) are the most famous rock formations, while the Kakadu National Park in the north of the state contains some remarkable wetlands and wildlife. Most of the Northern Territory (around 80 per cent) lies within the tropics and the 6,200km (3,870mi) coastline is generally flat, backed by mangroves, mudflats and swamps, while much of the interior is plateau with some mountain ranges. The northern quarter of the state is known as the ‘Top End’, a region of savannah, woodlands and pockets of rainforest.

The isolation and frontier spirit of the Northern Territory are an attraction for some people, but conditions can be harsh, particularly the gruellingly hot climate, and the Northern Territory’s alcohol consumption is one of the highest in the world, estimated to be an impressive (or appalling) 1,120 standard drinks per person per year.

The Northern Territory’s economy is based on cattle (the state has some huge cattle stations, covering thousands of square kilometres), mining (including bauxite, copper, diamonds, gold, manganese, silver and zinc) and seafood. The state also has reserves of natural gas, oil and uranium.

Queensland

Queensland covers 1,852,642km2 (715,120mi2) of the north-east of Australia and is home to around 3.8 million people. The northernmost part of the state is the Cape York Peninsula, a huge triangular area that tapers towards New Guinea. To the west of Queensland lies the Northern Territory, to the east is the Pacific Ocean and to the south is New South Wales.

Queensland’s population is less centralised than the rest of Australia, with Brisbane having only 45 per cent of the state’s population, against a national average for state capitals of around 64 per cent. The state is home to the largest city (by area) in the world, Mount Isa, which covers over 40,000km2 (15,440mi2). The year-round warm climate of Queensland is an attraction for many immigrants (but puts off others, as does the humidity that often accompanies the heat) and another draw is the fact that Brisbane has the lowest cost of living of Australia’s state and territory capital cities.

Queensland’s major industries are agriculture (especially bananas and pineapples, along with a wide range of other tropical and temperate fruit and vegetables), cattle, cotton, mining (including bauxite, coal and copper), sugar cane and wool. Retail and tourism are also important to the economy. The Great Barrier Reef is a major tourist draw for Queensland. It’s the world’s largest coral reef, over 2,000km (1,250mi) long, and can be seen from space. The reef is sometimes inaccurately described as the world’s largest living organism, although it’s actually many separate coral colonies.

South Australia

South Australia is situated in the southern central part of the country, along the Southern Ocean. It covers an area of 984,377km2 (379,970mi2) and has a population of around 1.575 million, most of whom live in the fertile coastal areas and in the Murray River valley. South Australia has borders with all mainland states and territories except for the Australian Capital Territory. It consists mainly of arid and semi-arid rangelands, with several low mountain ranges. In the west of the state is the thinly-populated Nullarbor Plain.

South Australia’s economic growth has lagged behind the rest of Australia for some time (partly because of the collapse of the State Bank in 1992), although its performance is improving. The state’s main industries and exports are wheat, wine and wool, and over half of Australia’s wines are produced in South Australia. German immigrants fleeing religious persecution brought with them the vine cuttings that founded the famous wineries of South Australia’s Barossa Valley. Clare Valley, Coonawarra and McLaren Vale are other noted South Australian wine areas. Manufacturing is also important to the state’s economy, generating 15 per cent of GDP, particularly car and component manufacturing, defence technology and pharmaceuticals. South Australia is known as the Festival State (because of the annual festivals held in Adelaide) and as the Wine State.

Tasmania

The island state of Tasmania is situated 240km (150mi) south of the south-east corner of the Australian mainland, separated from it by the Bass Strait. It’s thought that Tasmania was joined to the mainland until the end of the last ice age, around 10,000 years ago. The state covers 68,332km2 (26,383mi2) and has a population of around 460,000. It’s the only Australian state with any land to the south of the 40th parallel and is known as the apple state due (unsurprisingly) to the large amount of apples grown there.

Tasmania’s capital and largest city is Hobart, which comprises the cities of Clarence, Glenorchy and Hobart. Other major population centres include Launceston in the north and Burnie and Devonport in the north-west. The sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island is under Tasmania’s administration.

Tasmania is a rugged island with a temperate climate, regarded by some early English colonists as so similar to pre-Industrial England that they dubbed it ‘Southern England’. Geographically, much of Tasmania is similar to New Zealand (which isn’t something that would impress the average Aussie!), but because it hasn’t been volcanically active in recent geological times, its mountains are softer and more rounded than New Zealand’s.

The island’s most mountainous region is the Central Highlands, which covers much of the central western parts of Tasmania. The Midlands (the central eastern area) is flat by comparison and is mainly used for agriculture. The west coast has high rainfall, sufficient to power hydro-electric schemes, and the area is also important for mineral production. The south-west of Tasmania is particularly densely forested and the National Park has some of the southern hemsiphere’s last temperate rainforests. Most of Tasmania’s population lives on and around the coastal rivers, the Derwent and Huron in the south, and the Mersey and Tamar in the north.

Tasmania has the smallest revenue of Australia’s states, with an annual budget similar to Brisbane’s. The island’s economy has, for a long time, been temperamental. This has been attributed to different reasons at different times, including: not having a gold rush; a lack of federal infrastructure; too small a population; a decline in the mineral and wool markets; and a lack of foreign investment. A significant drain on the state’s economy is the continuing exodus of people, particularly the young, to the mainland seeking better job opportunites.

Tasmania’s main industries are agriculture, forestry, mining (including copper, iron, tin and zinc) and tourism. Major employers on the island include the government, the Federal Group (which owns Tasmania’s two casinos) and Gunns Limited, the state’s largest forestry company. Some Australian companies have also moved their call centres to Tasmania. Manufacturing has declined greatly in recent years, adding to the exodus of people to the mainland, in this case experienced, trained workers.

Tasmania’s economic ups and downs, as well as the relative isolation of life on an island, have made some Tasmanians see themselves and the world differently from the majority of mainlanders. This is reflected in the island’s large arts community and strong environmental movement. But the environmental community has often had a divisive effect in Tasmania because its work has led to large areas of the island being conserved as national parks and other protected areas. This has severely limited economic development in these areas, most notably for the forestry and mining industries. Environmentalists argue that this is more than compensated for by the fact that a pristine environment attracts more tourists and retirees to Tasmania. There may be something to this: the island’s historic sites, unspoiled environment and temperate climate have made Tasmania an increasingly popular choice with retirees, keen to escape the mainland’s bushfires, coastal (over)development, droughts and heat.

Victoria

Victoria lies in the far south-east of the country and is Australia’s smallest mainland state by area (csovering 237,629km2/91,725mi2). Its northern border is the south bank of the Murray River, the river itself being part of New South Wales. South Australia lies to the west and there’s ocean to the east and south.

Victoria has a population of around 5 million, making it Australia’s most densely populated state. The capital, Melbourne, is home to some 70 per cent of the state’s population and dominates Victoria’s culture, economy and media. But Victoria has many other attractions, including the Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape, skiing in the Victorian Alps and tours around the state’s wine producing areas. Victoria is also the base of a particular local passion, Australian Rules Football, and is home to ten of the 16 major league clubs.

Historically, Victoria’s economy relied on brown coal mining, gold mining and offshore oil drilling, and still does, to some extent. In 1851, gold was discovered at Ballarat, then at Bendigo and subsequently at sites all over Victoria, triggering one of the world’s largest gold rushes.

Melbourne is an important manufacturing and service centre, but agriculture dominates Victoria’s economy, boosted by the fact that the state has reasonably rich soils and a temperate, wet climate, compared with the rest of Australia. Major agricultural exports include beef and dairy cattle, sheep products (lamb and wool) and wheat (mainly from the drier western half of the state). Wine grape production is becoming more important, particularly as some of Australia’s wine makers are seeking favoured cooler regions of the country in order to make more sophisticated, subtle wines.

Victoria’s climate varies from the wet, temperate conditions of Gippsland in the south-east, to the alpine climate of the snow-covered mountains (Mount Bogong is the state’s highest peak, at 1,986m/6,515ft) and the extensive semi-arid plains of the west and north-west. Owing to its reasonably high rainfall, Victoria has an extensive network of rivers.

Western Australia

Western Australia is Australia’s largest state, covering the westernmost third of the Australian mainland. It covers 2,645,615km2 (1,021,205mi2) and borders South Australia and the Northern Territory. Western Australia’s population is around 1.95 million, many of whom live in the state capital Perth and the surrounding area. Western Australia is the country’s fastest growing state and has the lowest unemployment rate. In recent years it has had the highest rate of overseas migration (the majority from the UK), outnumbered only by arrivals from other Australian states.

Perth lies on the south-west coast of the state (and the country), and the Perth Metropolitan area has grown to include the port of Fremantle and the town of Rockingham. Other important centres in Western Australia include Albany, Broome, Bunbury, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie and Port Hedland, but all are small. The south-west coastal area of the state is the best suited to human habitation, being relatively temperate and forested, while much of the rest of Western Australia is very hot and semi-arid or desert, and lightly populated. One exception, weather-wise, is the northern tropical region, especially the Kimberley.

Western Australia’s economy has long been largely based on the extraction and export of mining and petroleum commodities, especially alumina, gold, iron ore, natural gas and nickel. The state is a leading alumina extractor and produces over 20 per cent of the world’s aluminium. Western Australia is the world’s third-largest iron ore producer, with around 16 per cent of global output, and extracts around 75 per cent of Australia’s 240 tonnes of gold each year.

Agricultural exports are important to Western Australia, especially barley, sheep products (meat and wool) and wheat. Tourism is growing in importance, with most of the state’s visitors coming from the UK, Ireland, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia.

© Survival Books Limited 2006

“Buying a Home in Australia & New Zealand” 1st Edition, Graeme Chesters.
Reproduced with the permission of Survival Books Limited.

Further information on this topic can be found in “Buying a Home in Australia & New Zealand” 1st edition, by Graeme Chesters.

For extensive information about buying a property in Australia & New Zealand, you can purchase this book at www.survivalbooks.net