States and territories of Australia facts for kids

Quick facts for kids States and territories of Australia
Location	Australia
Number	Six states, three internal territories, and seven external territories
Populations	Smallest state: Tasmania 541,071 Largest state: New South Wales 8,166,369 Smallest territories: Ashmore and Cartier Islands 0 (uninhabited) Heard Islands 0 (uninhabited) Largest territory: Australian Capital Territory 431,215
Areas	Smallest state: Tasmania 90,758 km2 (35,042 sq mi) Largest state: Western Australia 2,642,753 km2 (1,020,373 sq mi) Smallest territory: Cocos (Keeling) Islands 14 km2 (5.4 sq mi) Largest territories: Northern Territory 1,419,630 km2 (548,120 sq mi) Australian Antarctic Territory 5,896,500 km2 (2,276,700 sq mi)
Subdivisions	Local Government Areas and Unincorporated Areas

The states and territories are federated administrative divisions in Australia, ruled by regional governments that constitute the second level of governance between the federal government and local governments. States are self-governing polities with incomplete sovereignty (having ceded some sovereign rights to federation) and have their own constitutions, legislatures, departments, and certain civil authorities (e.g. judiciary and law enforcement) that administer and deliver most public policies and programmes. Territories can be autonomous and administer local policies and programmes much like the states in practice, but are still constitutionally and financially subordinate to the federal government and thus have no true sovereignty.

The Federation of Australia constitutionally consists of six federated states (New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia) and ten federal territories, out of which three are internal territories (the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory and Jervis Bay Territory) contiguous to the Australian mainland; and the other seven are external territories (Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Christmas Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Norfolk Island, and the Australian Antarctic Territory), which are offshore dependent territories. Every state and internal territory is self-governing with its own independent executive government, legislative branch, and judicial system, while the rest only have local government status overseen by federal departments.

State and territory governments have executive authority to legislate on matters concerning their citizens, subject to the limits of the federal constitution (notably section 51 and section 109). Each state and internal territory has its own legislature, although the federal government can override any territorial legislation. The federal High Court of Australia acts as a final court of appeal for all matters and has the authority to override any state judiciary. While all states and internal territories have their own judicial system, which is subject to appeal to the High Court, most external territories are subject to the judiciary and legislature of either a state or internal territory. Excluding the Heard Island and McDonald Islands and the Australian Antarctic Territory (which are governed by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment), the external territories are governed by the federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.

Each state of Australia is a successor to historical British colonies, and each has its own state or territorial constitution. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Northern Territory for the most part operate indistinguishably from the states, even though they do not have constitutional status as states and territorial legislations can be overridden.

Geographic Australia

The term geographic Australia is used by the Australian government to describe the area covered by demographic statistics such as national population figures. This area comprises Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in addition to the six states and three mainland territories. Norfolk Island is the only territory with a native population that is not part of geographic Australia.

External territories, states and territories

Reference map for states and territories of Australia

States and territories of Australia

Flag	State/territory name	Abbrev	ISO	Postal	Type	Capital (or largest settlement)	Population	Area (km²)
	Ashmore and Cartier Islands				External	(Offshore anchorage)	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&00.&&&&&00	199
	Australian Antarctic Territory	AAT	AQ		External	Davis Station	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".1,000	5,896,500
	Australian Capital Territory	ACT	AU-ACT	ACT	Territory	Canberra	&&&&&&&&&0395200.&&&&&0395,200	2,358
	Christmas Island		CX		External	Flying Fish Cove	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".2,072	135
	Cocos (Keeling) Islands		CC		External	West Island	&&&&&&&&&&&&0596.&&&&&0596	14
	Coral Sea Islands				External	(Willis Island)	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&04.&&&&&04	10
	Heard Island and McDonald Islands	HIMI	HM		External	(Atlas Cove)	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&00.&&&&&00	372
	Jervis Bay Territory	JBT		JBT	Territory	(Jervis Bay Village)	&&&&&&&&&&&&0377.&&&&&0377	70
	New South Wales	NSW	AU-NSW	NSW	State	Sydney	&&&&&&&&07704300.&&&&&07,704,300	800,642
	Norfolk Island		NF		External	Kingston	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".2,302	35
	Northern Territory	NT	AU-NT	NT	Territory	Darwin	&&&&&&&&&0244000.&&&&&0244,000	1,349,129
	Queensland	Qld	AU-QLD	QLD	State	Brisbane	&&&&&&&&04827000.&&&&&04,827,000	1,730,648
	South Australia	SA	AU-SA	SA	State	Adelaide	&&&&&&&&01706500.&&&&&01,706,500	983,482
	Tasmania	Tas	AU-TAS	TAS	State	Hobart	&&&&&&&&&0518500.&&&&&0518,500	68,401
	Victoria	Vic	AU-VIC	VIC	State	Melbourne	&&&&&&&&06039100.&&&&&06,039,100	227,416
	Western Australia	WA	AU-WA	WA	State	Perth	&&&&&&&&02613700.&&&&&02,613,700	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 1923 to 1968, the United Nations Trust Territory of Nauru was under Australian administration, until independence as the Republic of Nauru.
• 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), 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; laws for territories are determined by the Australian Parliament.

Most of the territories are directly administered by the Commonwealth Government, while two (the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory) have some degree of self-government although less than that of the states. 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 if they were states.

Each state has a Governor, appointed by the Queen, which by convention she does on the advice of the state Premier. The Administrator of the Northern Territory, by contrast, is 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 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. 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.

The external territory of Norfolk Island possessed a degree of self-government from 1979 until 2015.

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

Premiers and Chief Ministers of states and territories

Distance table

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