States and territories of Australia

Australia is divided into states and territories, which are like the different parts that make up the country. These parts have their own leaders, laws, and ways of making decisions, but they all work together under the country's main government. There are six big areas called states: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia. Each state used to be its own colony from long ago and has its own special rules and ways of doing things.

Besides the states, there are also ten areas called territories. Three of these are inside the main land of Australia: the Australian Capital Territory, the Jervis Bay Territory, and the Northern Territory. The other seven are far away from the mainland, like small islands. Most of these territories have their own local leaders, but they still follow the main country's rules.

The leaders of each state and some territories can make their own laws for their people, but these laws must follow the big rules set by the country's main government. This helps make sure everyone in Australia is treated fairly and safely.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Australia

Australia is a continent surrounded by the Indian, Pacific, and Southern oceans. It is close to Maritime Southeast Asia and New Guinea across the Arafura Sea, the Timor Sea, and the Torres Strait. The Coral Sea separates it from Island Melanesia, and the Tasman Sea lies between Australia and New Zealand. Australia is the world's smallest continent and the sixth-largest country by land area. It also is sometimes called the world's largest island. The mainland coastline stretches for 32,994 kilometres (20,502 mi), and Australia has a large area of water called an exclusive economic zone.

Borders

Main article: Territorial evolution of Australia

• Australian Capital Territory borders
• New South Wales borders
• Northern Territory borders
• Queensland borders
• South Australian borders
• Tasmanian borders
• Victorian borders
• Western Australian borders

States and territories

At Federation in 1901, what is now the Northern Territory was part of South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory and Jervis Bay Territory were part of New South Wales. The Coral Sea Islands were part of Queensland. Ashmore and Cartier Islands became part of Australia in 1934 and were added to the Northern Territory.

Each faraway area is managed by laws from the federal Parliament. These laws decide most of the rules for how these areas are run. Under the Australian Constitution, the federal Parliament can make any laws for all territories, including faraway ones. The Cocos (Keeling) Islands voted for integration in 1984. Together with Christmas Island, these areas are known as the Australian Indian Ocean Territories. Federal laws apply to these areas unless stated otherwise, and people living there are linked with the Northern Territory for national elections. This means they are legally part of Australia.

The Heard Island and McDonald Islands, though no one lives there, are considered part of Australia by the government.

Norfolk Island’s status is debated. The current government is working to make it fully part of Australia, including giving it a voice in parliament and requiring voting. However, Norfolk Islanders have not agreed to this change and feel they are not Australian.

Former territories

Internal

Two internal areas set up by the Australian government under Section 122 of the Constitution of Australia no longer exist:

• Central Australia (1926–1931), which was the part of the current Northern Territory south of the 20th parallel south
• North Australia (1926–1931), which was the part of the current Northern Territory north of the 20th parallel south

External

Two countries in the ocean, Papua New Guinea and Nauru, were once managed by Australia as external areas between 1902 and 1975.

Papua and New Guinea (1883–1975)

• Territory of Papua:
  • 1883–1902: A part of Queensland (de jure British territory from 1888–1900)
  • 1902–1949: An external area of Australia
• Territory of New Guinea: 1920–1949, under a League of Nations mandate. Before that, it was known as German New Guinea from 1884 to 1914; it was under Australian military control from 1914 to 1920.

After World War II, the Papua and New Guinea Act 1949 joined the Territory of New Guinea with the Territory of Papua, creating the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. However, they stayed separate for some rules and management. Later, the Papua New Guinea Independence Act 1975 made the combined area an independent country called Papua New Guinea.

Nauru (1920–1968)

Nauru was once part of the German colonial empire in German New Guinea. After World War I, Australia got control of Nauru under a League of Nations mandate for Nauru. After World War II, Australia, along with Papua and New Guinea, controlled Nauru as a United Nations trust territory. Finally, the Nauru Independence Act 1967 made Nauru an independent country in 1968.

States of Australia

Flag	State	Postal	ISO	Capital	Population (Sept 2025)	Area (km2)	Population Density (/km2)	No. members in House of Reps.	Governor	State Government
	New South Wales	NSW	AU-NSW	Sydney	8,624,534	800,150	10.49	47	Margaret Beazley	Chris Minns (Labor)	Government of New South Wales
	Victoria	VIC	AU-VIC	Melbourne	7,104,349	227,416	30.18	38	Margaret Gardner	Jacinta Allan (Labor)	Victorian Government
	Queensland	QLD	AU-QLD	Brisbane	5,692,642	1,729,742	3.18	30	Jeannette Young	David Crisafulli (Liberal National)	Queensland Government
	Western Australia	WA	AU-WA	Perth	3,061,672	2,527,013	1.15	16	Chris Dawson	Roger Cook (Labor)	Government of Western Australia
	South Australia	SA	AU-SA	Adelaide	1,908,182	984,321	1.89	10	Frances Adamson	Peter Malinauskas (Labor)	Government of South Australia
	Tasmania	TAS	AU-TAS	Hobart	576,659	68,401	8.89	5	Barbara Baker	Jeremy Rockliff (Liberal)	Tasmanian Government

Flag	Territory	Postal	ISO	Capital (or largest settlement)	Population (Sept 2025)	Area (km2)	Population Density (/km2)	No. members in House of Reps.	Administrator	Territory Government
	Australian Capital Territory	ACT	AU-ACT	Canberra	486,231	2,358	198.97	3	—N/a	Andrew Barr (Labor)	ACT Government
	Northern Territory	NT	AU-NT	Darwin	265,457	1,347,791	0.19	2	Hugh Heggie	Lia Finocchiaro (Country Liberal)	Northern Territory Government
	Jervis Bay Territory	ACT	—N/a	(Jervis Bay Village)	405	67	6.04	Part of ACT's Division of Fenner	Administered by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts

External territories of Australia

Flag	Territory	Postal	ISO	Capital	Official language(s)	Population (Jun 2018)	Area (km2)	Population Density (/km2)	No. members in House of Reps.	Administrator	Head of Local Government	Local Government
	Norfolk Island	NSW	NF	Kingston	Norfuk, English	2,601	35	74	Part of ACT's Division of Bean	George Plant	Lead Administrator Scott Mason	Norfolk Island Regional Council
	Christmas Island	WA	CX	Flying Fish Cove	de jure: None de facto: English, Mandarin, Malay	1,938	135	14	Part of NT's Division of Lingiari	Farzian Zainal	Shire President Gordon Thompson	Shire of Christmas Island
	Cocos (Keeling) Islands	WA	CC	West Island	de jure: None de facto: Cocos Malay, English	547	14	39			Shire President Aindil Minkom	Shire of Cocos (Keeling) Islands
	Australian Antarctic Territory	TAS	AQ	None	English	60	5,896,500	0.0000102	—N/a	None
	Coral Sea Islands	QLD	—N/a	None	None	4	780,000	0.000005
	Ashmore and Cartier Islands	—N/a		None	None	0	199	0
	Heard Island and McDonald Islands	TAS	HM	None	None	0	372	0

Statistics

Most Australians live in the eastern coastal mainland states of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory. Together, these areas are home to 79% of the country's population, meaning more than three-quarters of all Australians live there. The biggest cities and towns are mostly found to the east and south of the Great Dividing Range, on the coastal plains and nearby hinterland areas.

State / territory	Mainland area			Total land area			Marine area			Total area
	km2	sq mi	Rank	km2	sq mi	Rank	km2	sq mi	Rank	km2	sq mi	Rank
New South Wales	801,137	309,321	5	801,150	309,330	5	8,802	3,398	7	809,952	312,724	5
Victoria	227,038	87,660	6	227,444	87,817	6	10,213	3,943	6	237,657	91,760	6
Queensland	1,723,030	665,270	2	1,729,742	667,857	2	121,994	47,102	1	1,914,736	739,284	2
Western Australia	2,523,924	974,493	1	2,527,013	975,685	1	115,740	44,690	2	2,642,753	1,020,373	1
South Australia	979,651	378,245	4	984,321	380,048	4	60,032	23,178	4	1,044,353	403,227	4
Tasmania	64,519	24,911	7	68,401	26,410	7	22,357	8,632	5	90,758	35,042	7
Australian Capital Territory	2,358	910	8	2,358	910	8	—	—	8	2,358	910	8
Northern Territory	1,334,404	515,216	3	1,347,791	520,385	3	71,839	27,737	3	1,419,630	548,120	3

State / territory	Abbreviation	Land area			Population (2021 census)		Population density			% of population in capital
		km2	sq mi	Rank	Number	Rank	/km2	/sq mi	Rank	%	Rank
New South Wales	NSW	801,150	309,330	5	8,072,163	1	9.62	24.9	3	63.0%	5
Victoria	VIC	227,444	87,817	6	6,503,491	2	26.56	68.8	2	71.0%	4
Queensland	QLD	1,729,742	667,857	2	5,156,138	3	2.79	7.2	5	46.0%	7
Western Australia	WA	2,527,013	975,685	1	2,660,026	4	1.03	2.7	7	73.4%	3
South Australia	SA	984,321	380,048	4	1,781,516	5	1.74	4.5	6	73.5%	2
Tasmania	TAS	68,401	26,410	7	557,571	6	7.58	19.6	4	41.0%	8
Australian Capital Territory	ACT	2,358	910	8	453,890	7	167.6	434	1	99.6%	1
Northern Territory	NT	1,347,791	520,385	3	232,605	8	0.18	0.47	8	54.0%	6

Background and overview

Further information: History of Australia and Territorial evolution of Australia

The states of Australia started as separate British colonies before joining together in 1901. The colony of New South Wales was founded in 1788 and originally covered much of the mainland, along with several islands. Over time, parts of it split off to form new colonies like Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, and Queensland. In 1901, these six colonies became the states of the new Commonwealth of Australia. Two territories, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, were created later by the Australian government.

The states have their own governments and laws, which are protected by the Australian constitution. The territories are governed more directly by the Australian government, though some have their own local governments too. Each state has a governor representing the monarch, while territories have administrators or are governed directly by their local parliaments.

Politics

Main article: Governors of the Australian states Main article: Premiers and chief ministers of the Australian states and territories Main article: Parliaments of the Australian states and territories

• Parliament of New South Wales
• Parliament of Victoria
• Parliament of Queensland
• Parliament of Western Australia
• Parliament of South Australia
• Parliament of Tasmania
• Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly
• Northern Territory Legislative Assembly

Supreme courts

Main article: Australian court hierarchy

Australia has important courts called Supreme Courts in each state and territory. These include:

• Supreme Court of New South Wales
• Supreme Court of Victoria
• Supreme Court of Queensland
• Supreme Court of Western Australia
• Supreme Court of South Australia
• Supreme Court of Tasmania
• Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory
• Supreme Court of the Northern Territory
• Supreme Court of Norfolk Island

Police forces

Main article: Law enforcement in Australia

Australia has different police groups in each part of the country to help keep everyone safe. These include:

• New South Wales Police Force
• Victoria Police
• Queensland Police Service
• Western Australia Police Force
• South Australia Police
• Tasmania Police
• Australian Capital Territory Policing (performed by Australian Federal Police)
• Northern Territory Police Force
• Law enforcement in Norfolk Island, also provided by Australian Federal Police

State and territory codes