States of Australia

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Updates: 

Western Australia's Parliament passed a bill on 2006-11-21 by which the state will observe daylight saving time for three years, beginning December 3, 2006, at 2:00 a.m. If the measure is popular, it will become permanent.

The MARC library cataloguing standard, administered by the Library of Congress, has created new codes for the subdivisions of Australia.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-6 was published on 2004-03-08. It didn't list any changes for Australia. However, at some date between then and now (probably soon after the publication date), ISO discovered a small omission from the newsletter. They revised it on their website. Since it was such a minor error, they didn't bother notifying anyone. However, in the process of posting the new version of the newsletter, they apparently reverted to a draft version. As a result, there have been two incompatible versions of the update notice put into circulation. One had changes for Australia and not for Tunisia; the other (the one I downloaded on the day the update was published) had changes for Tunisia and not for Australia. I discovered the problem when Kent Morgan sent me corrections for the Australia state codes. I've written to ISO about it. They say that they will rectify the problem, probably by tomorrow afternoon (2006-05-09). The consequence of this lapse, as it affects the Statoids page, is that my Australia state ISO codes have been out of date for over two years.

Erratum: Under "Territorial extent", under Australian Capital Territory, Jervis Bay should be located on the east coast of New South Wales. New South Wales doesn't have a west coast.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics  site has the population data shown in the table below. Most of the figures are slightly in disagreement with figures given in "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries" (compiled from other sources). Moreover, I wasn't able to find an explanation on the ABS site of how the figures fit together. For 1991, 1996, and 2001, the total of the populations of the eight states and territories didn't add up to the population given for all of Australia. I made the assumption that the missing people were in "other territories". Probably all or almost all of these people would be in Jervis Bay territory, so I added them in with Australian Capital Territory.

New information indicates that Jervis Bay Territory and Australian Capital Territory are legally two separate entities. The Jervis Bay Territory Acceptance Act of 1915 says, "the laws ... in force from time to time in the Australian Capital Territory are, so far as they are applicable to the [Jervis Bay] Territory and are not inconsistent with an Ordinance, in force in the Territory as if the Territory formed part of the Australian Capital Territory." The words "as if ... formed" imply that Jervis Bay Territory does not in fact form part of the Australian Capital Territory. For further evidence, see the list of territories on the Department of Transport and Regional Services  page.

The Australian Office of Parliamentary Counsel  page explains how to refer to the various states and territories in drafting legislation.

No standard reference work lists Jervis Bay Territory separately, so my book will continue to include it as part of Australian Capital Territory.

Country overview: 

In 1900, there were six British colonies on the Australian continent. On January 1, 1901, they united to form a single independent country, professing allegiance to the crown of England.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Australien
2. Dutch: Australië, Gemenebest Australië (formal)
3. English: Commonwealth of Australia (formal), Oz (informal)
4. Finnish: Australia
5. French: Australie, Commonwealth d'Australie f (formal)
6. German: Australien n
7. Icelandic: Ástralía
8. Italian: Australia f
9. Norwegian: Australia
10. Portuguese: Austrália, Comunidade f da Austrália f (formal)
11. Spanish: Australia, Commonwealth de Australia f (formal)
12. Swedish: Australien

Origin of name: 

Early cartographers used Latin Terra Australis: Southern Land

Primary subdivisions: 

Australia is divided into six states and four territories (see "Territorial extent" for more details).

Time zone note: Lord Howe Island is offset +10:30 from UTC, and advances only 30 minutes in the summer, the only place in the world that does so. A few resort islands in Queensland, and all of Western Australia, have observed daylight saving time in some recent summers. Broken Hill, New South Wales has sometimes followed South Australian time.

Other codes:

The Australian telephone numbering system has recently been reformed. Effective in 1997, there are four area codes, each serving a whole state or states. All local telephone numbers are eight digits. This replaces the old system, in which both the city access codes and the local numbers were variable in length. Before the area code, dial 0 from another Australian telephone, or your international access code followed by 61 from other countries. Territories with a blank in this column have a +672 international prefix.

Australian postal codes are four digits. With a few exceptions, the state can be deduced from the first one or two digits. The exceptions are cases where a city is served from a distribution center in a neighboring state.

This table shows the codes for each of the major states and territories:

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has defined the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) 1999 . The top-level divisions of Australia under this classification are assigned "S/T" codes (states and territories). Some of the specific divisions are not on the list of Australian states and territories that appears in "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries". Two of them are "countries", meaning that ISO 3166 has given them separate country codes.

Further subdivisions:

See the Shires of Australia page.

There are about 900 units of local government. In different parts of the country, they are called boroughs, cities, district councils, municipalities, shires, or towns. There are also some unincorporated areas.

Territorial extent: 

1. Australian Capital Territory is completely surrounded by New South Wales. Jervis Bay Territory is situated on the east coast of New South Wales. Legally, Jervis Bay is separate from A.C.T., but most references treat it as a part of A.C.T.
2. New South Wales includes Lord Howe Island and nearby Ball's Pyramid.
3. Northern Territory includes Ashmore and Cartier Islands. These islands are referred to as a territory, but they are uninhabited and are administered as part of Northern Territory. I have given them a separate line in the table to be able to show their FIPS code.
4. Queensland includes islands in the Torres Strait as far north as the south coast of New Guinea, including Saibai Island, Boigu Island, Talbot Islands, and Bramble Cay, but excluding Bristow Island and Parama Island. Queensland's eastern border includes the Great Barrier Reef.
5. Tasmania includes Macquarie Island. The dividing line between the islands in the Bass Strait that belong to Victoria and those that belong to Tasmania is the parallel of 39° 12' South. Almost all of the islands, as far north as the Hogan Group, thus belong to Tasmania. Boundary Islet is cut by the dividing parallel, and contains the entire 85-meter land boundary between Tasmania and Victoria.
6. Western Australia includes reefs within about 400 km. of the Australian mainland, but not Ashmore and Cartier Islands.
7. Coral Sea Islands Territory includes the islands east of the Great Barrier Reef, west of the meridian of 157° East, and between the parallels of 12° and 24° South. The only settlement in this territory is a weather station on Willis Island. It is administered from Kingston, Norfolk Island. There is no indication in ISO 3166-2 of where this territory is assigned.
8. The following remote territories of Australia are treated as separate countries by ISO 3166-1, so they are not included here: Cocos (Keeling) Islands; Christmas Island [in the Indian Ocean]; Norfolk Island; and Heard and McDonald Islands. In addition, Australian Antarctic Territory is claimed by Australia but is listed under Antarctica in this book.

Origins of names: 

1. New South Wales: Named by Captain James Cook for its resemblance to the south coast of Wales.
2. Queensland: Named in honor of Queen Victoria of England.
3. Tasmania: Named for its discoverer, Abel Janszoon Tasman.
4. Victoria: Also named for Queen Victoria of England.

Change history: 

1. 1901-01-01: Commonwealth of Australia formed by the union of six British colonies: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia.
2. 1905-11: British New Guinea became an external territory of Australia.
3. 1906-09-01: Name of British New Guinea changed to Papua.
4. 1911-01-01: Northern Territory split from South Australia as a territory. Name of capital of Northern Territory changed from Palmerston to Darwin.
5. 1911-01-01: Australian Capital Territory (Canberra section) split from New South Wales as a territory.
6. 1914-07-01: Norfolk Island (now listed as a separate country) became a federal territory.
7. 1915: Jervis Bay section (73 sq. km.) transferred from New South Wales to Australian Capital Territory.
8. 1921-05-09: New Guinea Territory, consisting of the part of New Guinea Island north of Papua and east of Indonesia (Irian Jaya) and nearby islands, mandated to Australia by the League of Nations.
9. 1927-02-01: Northern Territory split into two territories, North Australia and Central Australia (capital Alice Springs), along the parallel of 20° South.
10. 1927: National capital moved from Melbourne to Canberra. Some sources say that Bombala, south of Canberra in New South Wales, was capital for part of the period 1901-1927.
11. 1931-06-12: North Australia and Central Australia reunited into the territory of Northern Territory.
12. 1931-07-23: Ashmore and Cartier Islands became part of Australia as external territory.
13. 1938: Ashmore and Cartier Islands placed under Northern Territory administration.
14. 1946-12-13: Australian mandate for New Guinea Territory renewed by the United Nations as a trusteeship.
15. 1969-09-30: Coral Sea Islands Territory became an external territory of Australia.
16. 1975-09-16: Papua and New Guinea Territories became independent.
17. 2004-03-08: ISO changed the Australian state codes in the 3166-2 standard. The new codes come from the Australian standard AS 4212-1994, "Geographic information systems - Data dictionary for transfer of street addressing information". The former ISO codes, where different from the present ones, were: CT for Australian Capital Territory, NS for New South Wales, QL for Queensland, TS for Tasmania, and VI for Victoria.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Australian Capital Territory: Territoire de la Capitale Australienne (French); Território da Capital Australiana (Portuguese); Territorio della Capitale Federale (Italian)
2. Coral Sea Islands Territory: Territoire des Îles de la Mer de Corail (French); Território das Ilhas do Mar de Coral (Portuguese); Territorio delle Isole del Mar dei Coralli (Italian)
3. New South Wales: Neusüdwales (German); Nieuw Zuid-Wales (Dutch); Nouvelle-Galles du Sud (French); Nova Gales do Sul (Portuguese); Nueva Gales del Sur (Spanish); Nuovo Galles del Sud (Italian)
4. Northern Territory: Noordelijk Territorium (Dutch); Nordterritorium, Nord-Australien (German); Territoire du Nord (French); Territorio del Nord (Italian); Territorio del Norte (Spanish); Território do Norte (Portuguese)
5. South Australia: Australia del Sur (Spanish); Austrália do Sul (Portuguese); Austrália Meridional (Portuguese-variant); Australia Meridionale (Italian); Australie méridionale (French); Südaustralien (German); Zuid-Australië (Dutch)
6. Tasmania: Tasmânia (Portuguese); Tasmanie (French); Tasmanië (Dutch); Tasmanien (German)
7. Victoria: Vitória (Portuguese)
8. Western Australia: Australia Occidental (Spanish); Austrália Ocidental (Portuguese); Australia Occidentale (Italian); Australie occidentale (French); West-Australië (Dutch); Westaustralien (German)

Population history:

In 1901, A.C.T. was part of New South Wales, and population of Northern Territory is included with South Australia. For all other years, population of Jervis Bay and other territories is included with A.C.T. Censuses up to and including 1961 did not count the aboriginal population.