New South Wales

Founder State

Area: 801,600sq.km

Population: 6,204 million

Capital: Sydney

Topography

The topography of New South Wales reflects that of Australia as a whole - the beautiful beaches on the Pacific coast, the Snowy Mountains, their peaks snow-capped in winter, the gorges of the Blue Mountains, the fertile farming and pastoral country, the inhospitable outback. The Great Dividing Range, which extends for 3200 km from the extreme north of Queensland to the south coast of Victoria, cuts through the whole of New South Wales, dividing the state, as its name indicates, into four natural regions: - a narrow coastal strip, only 30-80km wide, in the east;

- the high tablelands and peaks of the Great Dividing Range itself;

- the fertile farming and pastoral country which slopes gently down towards the interior of the state; and

- the arid and sparsely populated outback to the west.

Tourist attractions

The great highlight of New South Wales, and indeed of the whole of Australia, is the state capital, Sydney, with its big-city attractions, its National Parks, its fine beaches and its facilities for water sports in the bays and inlets surrounding the city.

In the city's hinterland, beyond the Blue Mountains, are the Golden West, with its rich grazing land, huge fields of wheat and, in the past, its gold, and the irrigated Riverina region along the rivers Murrumbidgee and Murray (fruit, rice).

To the south extend great stretches of beautiful beaches - the Illawarra or Leisure Coast, the South Coast, the Alpine Coast.

In the Snowy Mountains (Australian Alps) is the marvellous natural landscape of Kosciusko National Park, with Australia's highest mountain and a number of other peaks over 2000 m. Here there are excellent (though expensive) facilities for winter sports and endless scope for walking in summer.

From Sydney the Pacific Highway runs north through the Hunter Valley and along the Holiday Coast, with a string of beaches and holiday resorts extending along the coast into Queensland.

From the coast of northern New South Wales excursions can be made into the mountainous hinterland of New England (rain forests), where the summer is pleasantly cool.

In the far west is the outback - arid, hot, inhospitable, with salt lakes and rivers which only rarely have any flow of water.