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The 'states and territories of Australia' make up the Commonwealth of Australia under a federal system of government.

Contents

States and territories of Australia

States

Territories

Mainland

External

Former

Background and overview

Comparative terminology

State governors and territorial administrators

Premiers and Chief Ministers of states and territories

State and territorial parliaments

State and territory police forces

Statistics

Distance table

State and territory codes

See also

External links

States and territories of Australia

States

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'State'	'Abbreviation'	'Capital'
25x15px  New South Wales	NSW	Sydney
25x15px  Queensland	QLD	Brisbane
25x15px  South Australia	SA	Adelaide
25x15px  Tasmania	TAS	Hobart
25x15px  Victoria	VIC	Melbourne
25x15px  Western Australia	WA	Perth

Territories

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Mainland

'Territory'	'Abbreviation'	'Capital'
25x15px  Australian Capital Territory	ACT	Canberra
25x15px  Jervis Bay Territory	JBT
25x15px  Northern Territory	NT	Darwin

From 1926 to 1931, Central Australia existed as a separate territory between the 20th and 26th parallels of latitude, before being reincorporated into the Northern Territory.

External

★ Ashmore and Cartier Islands

★ Australian Antarctic Territory

★ Norfolk Island

★ Christmas Island

★ Cocos (Keeling) Islands

★ Coral Sea Islands Territory

★ Heard and McDonald Islands

Former

★ Territory of North Australia (1927-31)

★ Territory of Central Australia (1927-31)

★ Territory of Papua (1902-49)

★ Territory of New Guinea (1920-49)

★ Territory of Papua and New Guinea (1949-72)

Background and overview

The states originated as separate British colonies prior to Federation (in 1901). Their powers are protected by the Australian constitution, and 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) administer themselves. 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 of Norfolk Island are, by contrast, appointed by the Governor-General. The Australian Capital Territory has neither a Governor nor 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.
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 the alternative vote. 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	Executive	Head of Government	Upper House of Parliament	Lower House of Parliament	Member of Parliament ★
Australia	Governor-General	Prime Minister	Senate	House of Representatives	Senator	MP
New South Wales	Governor	Premier	Legislative Council	Legislative Assembly	MLC	MLA
Victoria
Queensland			Abolished (1922)		None	MP
South Australia			Legislative Council	House of Assembly	MLC	MHA
Tasmania
Western Australia				Legislative Assembly		MLA
Australian Capital Territory	Chief Minister	Chief Minister	None		None
Northern Territory	Administrator
''Norfolk Island''
''Christmas Island''		Mayor/Shire President		Shire Council		Councillor
''Cocos (Keeling) Islands''
★ ''Note: The abbreviation 'MP' is an acceptable, and indeed more common term for members of each lower house.''

State governors and territorial administrators

Main articles: Governors of the Australian states

'Post'	'Appointee'	'Appointed'
Governor of New South Wales	Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO	March 2001
Governor of Victoria	His Excellency Professor David de Kretser AC	April 2006
Governor of South Australia	Her Excellency Mrs Marjorie Jackson-Nelson AC CVO MBE	November 2001
Governor of Queensland	Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC	July 2003
Governor of Tasmania	His Excellency the Hon William Cox AC RFD ED	December 2004
Governor of Western Australia	His Excellency Dr Ken Michael AC	October 2005
Administrator of the Northern Territory	Mr Ted Egan AO	October 2003
Administrator of Norfolk Island	The Hon Grant Tambling	November 2003
Administrator of Christmas Island	The Hon Neil Lucas PSM	January 2006
Administrator of Cocos (Keeling) Islands

Premiers and Chief Ministers of states and territories

Main articles: Premiers of the Australian states

'Post'	'Appointee'	'Political party'	'Appointed'
Premier of Queensland	The Hon Peter Beattie MP	ALP	June 1998
Chief Minister for the Northern Territory of Australia	Ms Clare Martin MLA	ALP	August 2001
Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory	Mr Jon Stanhope MLA	ALP	November 2001
Premier of South Australia	The Hon Mike Rann MHA	ALP	March 2002
Premier of Tasmania	The Hon Paul Lennon MHA	ALP	March 2004
Premier of New South Wales	The Hon Morris Iemma MLA	ALP	August 2005
Premier of Western Australia	The Hon Alan Carpenter MLA	ALP	January 2006
Chief Minister of Norfolk Island	Mr Andre Nobbs MLA		March 2007
Premier of Victoria	The Hon John Brumby‎ MLA	ALP	July 2007

State and territorial parliaments

Main articles: 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 police forces

Main articles: Law enforcement in Australia


★ Australian Capital Territory Police

★ New South Wales Police

★ Northern Territory Police

★ Queensland Police

★ South Australia Police

★ Tasmania Police

★ Victoria Police

★ Western Australia Police

Statistics

State/territory	Land area (km²)	Rank	Population (2004)	Rank	Population density (/km²)	Rank	% of population in capital	Rank
Australian Capital Territory	2358	8th	324300	7th	137.53	1st	99.6%	1st
New South Wales	800642	5th	6760000	1st	8.44	3rd	63%	5th
Victoria	227416	6th	5002300	2nd	22	2nd	71%	4th
Queensland	1730648	2nd	3919500	3rd	2.26	5th	46%	7th
South Australia	983482	4th	1537900	5th	1.56	6th	73.5%	2nd
Western Australia	2529875	1st	1998400	4th	0.79	7th	73.4%	3rd
Tasmania	68401	7th	484000	6th	7.08	4th	41%	8th
Northern Territory	1349129	3rd	200800	8th	0.15	8th	54%	6th

Distance table

Distance Table Australia

Adelaide
2673	Albany
1533	3588	Alice Springs
1578	3633	443	Ayers Rock
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	270	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 Kilometre.

State and territory codes

State/Territory	Callsigns			Postcodes	Telephone area codes	Time zone
	AM/FM	TV	Amateur			Std	Summer
Australian Capital Territory	1xx(x)	xx(x)Cn	VK1xx	02nn ★ , 26nn, 29nn	02	+10	+11
New South Wales	2xx(x)	xx(x)Nn	VK2xx	1nnn ★ , 2nnn	02	+10	+11
Victoria	3xx(x)	xx(x)Vn	VK3xx	3nnn, 8nnn ★	03	+10	+11
Queensland	4xx(x)	xx(x)Qn	VK4xx	4nnn, 9nnn ★	07	+10
South Australia	5xx(x)	xx(x)Sn	VK5xx	5nnn	08	+9½	+10½
Western Australia	6xx(x)	xx(x)Wn	VK6xx	6nnn	08	+8	+9
Tasmania	7xx(x)	xx(x)Tn	VK7xx	7nnn	03	+10	+11
Northern Territory	8xx(x)	xx(x)Dn	VK8xx	08nn	08	+9½
External Territories
Norfolk Island	2xx(x)		VK9xx	(NSW)	+672 3	+11½
Christmas Island				(WA)	(WA)	+7
Cocos Island						+6½
Australian Antarctic Territory	none		VK0xx	(Tas)	+672 1	+6 to +8
Macquarie Island	none					+10	+11

See also

★ , the ISO codes for the states and territories of Australia.

★ Proposals for new Australian States

★ List of regions in Australia

★ Territorial evolution of Australia

★ Australian regional rivalries

★ Provinces and territories of Canada (for comparison)

External links

★ Maps of Australia

★ CityMayors article