Australia's top 50 largest cities and towns by population | .id blog Find detailed information for over 500 Australian communities by visiting the .id Demographic Resource Centre. Some interesting points about this list: Sydney remains Australia’s largest urban centre, but it’s now only 5% bigger than Melbourne. The exclusion of Central Coast has an impact, but Melbourne has also had some outlying centres like Melton excluded. Melbourne is growing faster and should overtake Sydney within about 25 years on current trends. The fastest growing centres in this list are Ellenbrook (WA) and Melton (Vic) – which is a little misleading as these centres are really part of Greater Perth and Greater Melbourne respectively, but are separated in the new ABS list. NSW has 18 centres (including cross-border ones) in the top 50 list, by far the most of any state. South Australia manages only one, Adelaide. Mount Gambier just misses out, in 51st place. Despite a population only a quarter the size of South Australia, Tasmania manages 3 entries in the list, Hobart, Launceston and Devonport, due to a more dispersed population.

Queensland also “punches above its weight” with 10 entries, more than Victoria with a much larger population. This is for the same reason, a dispersed population. All of the top 50 centres increased in population over 5 years. The lowest growth was in Lismore, just 1.9%. In the top 100 centres, only 2 showed decline over that period, Broken Hill and Moe-Newborough. Further reading You might like to download our e-book Predicting the Growth Suburbs of the Future to look at where we see population growth occurring in the future. And our National Demographic Indicators website has the population and other demographic measures for every Local Government Area in Australia. Notes on geography Populations are more malleable than people think, and really depend on where you draw the boundaries. For example Central Coast is no longer included as part of Sydney but has its own identity in this list. This means that Sydney’s population appears substantially lower than in the previous list , which used the Greater area and had no listing for Central Coast. The ABS have come up with new boundaries, called “Significant Urban Areas”, so this article has used these, and ranks the centres by these new boundaries.

According to the ABS, Significant Urban Areas “represent concentrations of urban development with a population of 10,000 or more using whole Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2s). They do not necessarily represent a single Urban Centre, as they can represent a cluster of related Urban Centres with a core urban population over 10,000. They can also include related peri-urban and satellite development and the area into which the urban development is likely to expand.” What this means is that they represent cities and towns as most people understand them, but in some cases, areas may be subsumed within a larger Significant Urban Area (eg. a contiguous suburb of a major city would generally be included as part of that city). Large satellite centres which are part of the Greater Capital City area, but geographically separated, are now separately identified in many cases (hence Central Coast being separated from Sydney. So the important thing to remember is that this represents a particular way of drawing boundaries to rank areas but it may not be the only one. If your area isn’t listed, it’s likely included as part of another major centre, due to geographic proximity.

Access the Australian Community Profile to find Census results for each Capital City, State, and Australia on topics including population, age, country of birth, languages spoken, occupations, industries, employment, disability, income, qualifications, transport and much more… Share Cities in Australia, Australia Cities Map Hobart Map Australia is divided into six states and two mainland territories. The states in Australia are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia. Australia's mainland territories are the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. Each of the states and territories is headquartered at its own capital city. The capital of Australia is Canberra, which is located in the Australian Capital Territory in southeastern Australia. Canberra has a population of about 367,000, making it the largest inland city in the country, but the eight largest city in all. Canberra covers an area of 814 square kilometers (314 square miles). The most populous city in Australia is Sydney, which is the capital of New South Wales. Sydney is home to about 4.6 million people, in an area of about 12,144 square kilometers (4,689 square miles).

Sydney is a major cultural center of Australia, as the location of the Sydney Opera House, a thriving art scene, and cultural events and festivals. Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, is the second largest city in Australia with a population of about 4.1 million. The area of Melbourne is about 8,806 square kilometers (3,400 square miles), and it is called Garden City. Melbourne is often considered the cultural capital of Australia, with the headquarters of the country's film and television industry, and major sports and arts center. Brisbane is Queensland's capital, and the third largest city in Australia with a population of 2.1 million. Brisbane covers an area of 5,949 square kilometers (2,297 square miles) along the east coast of the continent. Perth is situated in Western Australia and is the largest city and capital of the state. Perth has a population of 1.8 million people living in its metropolitan area, which covers 5,386 square kilometers (2,079 square miles). The fifth largest city in Australia is Adelaide, the South Australian capital.

Adelaide's population numbers about 1.2 million and an area of 1,827 square kilometers (705 square miles). Cairns in Queensland and Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory are other important cities in Australia. Some of the important Australian cities include:- ACOD~20130205 Top 33 Biggest cities in Australia by population | .id blog 50,373 Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics: Regional Population Growth, Australia, 2010 – 11 (Cat. No. 3218.0) Note that the boundaries used for this list include the main and outlying urban areas of the town or city, not necessarily based on local government boundaries. For example, the LGAs of Wagga Wagga and Bendigo have larger populations than the centres as listed here, while Albury-Wodonga’s definition extends beyond the LGA to encompass a wider district. Some interesting points: The two largest cities account for 39% of all the nation’s population. The five largest make up 61%.

Of the list of centres over 50,000, 11 are (all or part) in Queensland, while only 8 are (all or part) in NSW (to be fair, the next 4, just under 50,000 are all in NSW!). Though a state capital, Hobart sits well behind the non-capital cities of Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Newcastle and Wollongong, as our 11th largest city. The Gold Coast, just a few scattered coastal villages prior to 1960, is now Australia’s 6th largest city. As recently as 1980, Perth was a smaller city than Adelaide, but it now has a population more than 500,000 higher (43% higher). Western Australia only has 3 centres over the 50,000 mark, and one of those, Mandurah, is about to be subsumed into Greater Perth under the new geographic classification. South Australia and the Northern Territory each have just one entry in the list, Adelaide and Darwin (SA’s second largest centre, Mount Gambier, only has 26,000 people).

Always in competition, Ballarat and Bendigo are next to each other on the list, with Ballarat still having a slightly higher population (the Local Government Area of Greater Bendigo has a higher population but the outer parts are excluded from the official urban area). There is also a strong rivalry between Launceston and Hobart, but Hobart has a much larger population. Three of these centres cross state borders. So where does your area sit? Current Estimated Resident Populations have now been updated on profile.id and economy.id sites, so you can check out the most up-to-date population for your LGA right now at .id’s demographic resource centre . Share Newcastle - Australia - YouTube Newcastle - Australia Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Dec 10, 2010 The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas.

It is the hub of the Greater Newcastle area which includes most parts of the Local Government Areas of City of Newcastle, City of Lake Macquarie, City of Cessnock, City of Maitland and Port Stephens Council. Situated 162 kilometres (101 mi) NNE of Sydney, at the mouth of the Hunter River, it is the predominant city within the Hunter Region. Famous for its coal, Newcastle is presently the largest coal exporting harbour in the world, exporting over 97 Mt of coal in 2009--10 with plans to expand annual capacity to 180 Mt by 2013.[5] Beyond the city, the Hunter Region possesses large coal depositsThe first European to explore the area was Lieutenant John Shortland in September 1797. His discovery of the area was largely accidental; as he had been sent in search of a number of convicts who had seized the HMS Cumberland as she was sailing from Sydney Cove.[7] While returning, Lt.

Shortland entered what he later described as "a very fine river", which he named after New South Wales' Governor, John Hunter.[8] He returned with reports of the deep-water port and the area's abundant coal. Over the next two years, coal mined from the area was the New South Wales colony's first export.[8] Newcastle gained a reputation as a "hellhole" as it was a place where the most dangerous convicts were sent to dig in the coal mines as harsh punishment for their crimes.[8] By the turn of the century the mouth of the Hunter River was being visited by diverse groups of men, including coal diggers, timber-cutters, and more escaped convicts. Philip Gidley King, the Governor of New South Wales from 1800, decided on a more positive approach to exploit the now obvious natural resources of the Hunter Valley.[7] In 1801, a convict camp called King's Town (named after Governor King) was established to mine coal and cut timber. In the same year, the first shipment of coal was dispatched to Sydney.

This settlement closed less than a year later.[8] A settlement was again attempted in 1804, as a place of secondary punishment for unruly convicts. The settlement was named Coal River, also Kingstown and then re-named Newcastle, after England's famous coal port. The name first appeared by the commission issued by Governor King on 15 March 1804 to Lieutenant Charles Menzies of the marine detachment on HMS Calcutta, then at Port Jackson, appointing him superintendent of the new settlement.[9] The new settlement, comprising convicts and a military guard, arrived at the Hunter River on 27 March 1804 in three ships: the Lady Nelson, the Resource and the James.[7][10] The convicts were rebels from the 1804 Castle Hill convict rebellion. The link with Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, its namesake and also from whence many of the 19th century coal miners came, is still obvious in some of the place-names -- such as Jesmond, Hexham, Wickham, Wallsend and Gateshead.

Morpeth, New South Wales is a similar distance north of Newcastle as Morpeth, Northumberland is north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Christ Church Cathedral dominates the skyline of Newcastle. Under Captain James Wallis, commandant from 1815 to 1818, the convicts' conditions improved, and a building boom began. Captain Wallis laid out the streets of the town, built the first church of the site of the present Christ Church Anglican Cathedral, erected the old gaol on the seashore, and began work on the breakwater which now joins Nobbys Head to the mainland. The quality of these first buildings was poor, and only (a much reinforced) breakwater survives. During this period, in 1816, the oldest public school in Australia was built in East Newcastle.[8] Newcastle remained a penal settlement until 1822, when the settlement was opened up to farming.[11] As a penal colony, the military rule was harsh, especially at Limeburners' Bay, on the inner side of Stockton peninsula. There, convicts were sent to burn oyster shells for making lime.[7] Military rule in Newcastle ended in 1823.

Prisoner numbers were reduced to 100 (most of these were employed on the building of the breakwater), and the remaining 900 were sent to Port Macquarie. ( source Wikipedia ) Category Map of Newcastle, NSW 2300 | Whereis® Whereis > NSW > Newcastle Map of Newcastle, NSW 2300 An administrative, commercial, cultural and industrial centre at the mouth of the Hunter River, Newcastle is one of the busiest and largest ports in the country, the second largest metropolitan area in New South Wales and the sixth city of Australia. Newcastle has some famous beaches, the best known being Nobbys, an ideal family beach. Newcastle and Merewether beaches both have large saltwater baths, which are patrolled and floodlit at night. King Edward Park, behind Newcastle Beach, is a local favourite with its sunken garden, band rotunda (1898) and the obelisk (1850) marking the site of Newcastle's first mill, as well as delightful leafy walks merging with ocean and beach views. Popular Australian States and Territories / Useful Notes - TV Tropes YMMV Australia has six states and two territories.

Well, kinda: The Commonwealth itself goes a lot further, spreading to places like Norfolk Island in the Pacific, Christmas Island a few thousand kilometres southeast of Indonesia and a whole chunk of Antarctica, but everyone just thinks of Australia as just the mainland and Tasmania, much like Americans think the United States is just the 50 states and DC . However, this is with good reason: The Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory have a much larger population and have much more political power than the smaller Australian territories elsewhere. But, for the sake of the article, we'll just say Australia has two territories. Good? Good. Australia was first settled as one colony, New South Wales, but this eventually branched out into six. These six, after settling some minor border problems, became Australia's six states, although the Northern Territory was part of South Australia. The six colonies became the six states during Federation on January 1, 1901, forming a unified government, but each of the states still retain a local culture which is still distinctive today, although somewhat less than earlier in history, thanks to a blending of them all as well as Americanisation.

The quickest points of distinction to find are whether they prefer the National Rugby League or the Australian Football League and, oddly enough, the name for a certain kind of sausage, which has a different name in every state. Just one of those things. (For the record, the "Sausage" we're talking about is the unsliced form of what Americans would call "Bologna"). Let's be fair - all the states have their good sides. The East Coast states (NSW and Victoria) are cosmopolitan and vibrantly diverse, Queensland is swimming in natural, tropical beauty, Western Australia is a booming economic powerhouse, South Australia basically created the modern 'Australiana' film industry, and Tasmania is blessed with quiet, pristine wilderness. However, be warned, the following article consists of people bragging about their own state and bashing others. Expect the following stereotypes: Sydneysiders are yuppies, Adelaide is dull as dishwater (which is, incidentally, safer to drink than what comes out of the tap there), Queenslanders are rednecks, Tasmanians are inbred, Melburnians are snobs, Western Australia is 3 hours and 30 years behind the rest of the country and everywhere else is backwards and ignored.

All of these stereotypes are completely and uniformly accurate. Unless it's your state, in which case, they're all wrong. New South Wales The oldest, most populous, most economically powerful, and most culturally important state, New South Wales is essentially the strongest state. Most of Australia's media and business is centred in New South Wales, particularly in Sydney . Here they play rugby league, with 10 out of the 16 NRL teams in the state, and they call that particular sausage "devon". New South Wales includes the home of Australian country music, Tamworth, but also the home of the Australian Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, so it is very diverse. A Kiwi outpost has been established here in Bondi. With Australia's biggest mosque in Sydney (the Gallipoli Mosque), and Wollongong home to the biggest Buddhist temple in the entire Southern Hemisphere (the Nan Tien Temple), NSW can be considered a centre of much of Australia's multiculturalism. Sydney , the capital of New South Wales, is the largest and most populous city in Australia, and boasts two of Australia's most well-known landmarks - the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the Sydney Opera House.

It's informally the business capital of Australia, with an infamously large central business district. Said business district, and indeed most of the city, is also infamously difficult to navigate courtesy of bewildering arrays of one way streets, curved roads and a near total lack of basic city grid structure: Americans, imagine a horrifying combination of New York and Boston, and you're halfway there (although the weather more than makes up for it). This is an artifact of the extremely haphazard way the oldest city in Australia was built on hilly terrain around a deeply-indented harbour. Believe it or not, it used to be worse. Sydney is also an extremely ethnically mixed city, with large populations of Asian, Middle Eastern, Polynesian, and African residents. The biggest ethnic group remains Anglo-Celtic Australians, but Sydney has it all, from Burmese to Brazilians, French to Fijians, Tongans to Turks. Auburn, in Sydney's west, is the most diverse region in the entire nation.

Since the Federal Government's official adoption of the policy of multiculturalism in the '70s, there has only been one major outbreak of ethnic violence in Sydney, the Cronulla Riots in one of the beach-side suburbs. North of Sydney is the oft-overlooked Newcastle - the second largest city in New South Wales, but mostly overlooked because it is pretty boring compared to Sydney, despite the fact that it is the largest coal-exporting harbour in the world (we can taste your excitement to hear that) and has some fantastic beaches (best in New South Wales, the ABC said so). It was also the location of one of Australia's extremely rare earthquakes and, more recently, suffered serious flooding , again quite unusual for the drought-ridden Australia. (Read: God hates Newcastle.) However, people from Newcastle are called Novocastrians, which sounds far more awesome convoluted than Sydneysiders. South of Sydney is the spectacularly-sited but even-more-often overlooked city of Wollongong. Contrary to the beliefs of a certain section of the community, the name "Wollongong" is not derived from a Chinese name meaning "Five Dragon Temple".

We also think we should mention Wagga Wagga here, mostly because, well, it's a fun name. It also marks the "border" between Australian Rules Football and Rugby League 's traditional territories. Don't call Wagga Wagga Wagga, calling Wagga Wagga Wagga is wrong. Maitland, as usual, slides under the Radar by being mediocre and constantly in Newcastle's shadow, however the nearby town of Kurri Kurri, in contrast to what the Wagga Wagga song says, is called Kurri by everyone in the region. Locals of Sydney are called Sydneysiders; locals of Newcastle are called Novocastrians. Wagga Wagga doesn't have a fancy name for its citizens; they get by on just living in such an awesomely named place. NSW: also occasionally said to stand for Newcastle-Sydney-Wollongong, the three cities, right next to each other on the coast, where pretty much everything, the people, the business, the fun, is.

Victoria Melbourne , now capital of Victoria and Australia's second largest city (next to Sydney), can be considered Australia's fashion, culture and sporting centre: a lot of Australian television comes from Melbourne (such as Kath and Kim and much of Australia's TV comedy), and a lot of Australian sport is played in the city, including the Australian Open, the Aussie Grand Prix, the AFL Grand Final, and the horse race that stops the nation, the Melbourne Cup (which also is one of the state's biggest fashion events of the year). It's the home of Australian Rules Football and has 10 out of the 18 AFL teams (nine if you don't count Geelong as a Melbourne team), and Melburnians remain stoically dedicated to AFL and resist rugby like it's the devil. The other area Melbourne seems to have the upper hand over Sydney in is education, and it's proud of its universities and museums. It's also incredibly multicultural, in part due to waves of immigration from World War Two onwards that keep coming; residents of Melbourne come from anywhere from Germany to Malaysia. Melbourne actually has the third-largest ethnically Greek population of any city in the world, including in Greece. Currently, Melbourne likes to sell itself as the cultural capital of Australia.

Melbourne has what may be the most awesome founding story of any city ever: It was founded by two guys named John , one of whom came to it on board the Enterprize , and the other of whom was named Batman . In fact, the young settlement nearly wound up being officially named Batmania before they settled on the more prosaic name of the then-current British Prime Minister . There is an intense rivalry between New South Wales and Victoria, or, more accurately, between Sydney and Melbourne; originally due to a dispute at federation over which city ought to be the national capital, Sydney having the historical benefit of being the first Australian city settled, but Melbourne being larger and the cultural hub Sydney wasn't at the time. Or maybe it dates back to when Melbourne (then "Port Philip") wanted to break away from Sydney and become self-governing, and Sydney didn't want it to. As the two cities were relatively evenly matched and neither could handle the other being capital, the solution was to build Canberra "halfway" between the two (actually, very much closer to Sydney). Unsurprisingly, both Sydney and Melbourne still like to think of themselves as the number one city of Australia.

You could be forgiven for wondering if there's anything to Victoria but Melbourne, and not without cause: the city sprawls like an overweight hippopotamus and about three quarters of the total population of the state live in it. Outside Melbourne, Victoria is one of the greenest states and small regional centres like Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat are notable. Many such small towns originated in mid-19th century gold rushes to Australia, of which Victoria got the lion's share, such that in ten years Victoria's population grew by almost seven times. Large numbers of Asian, especially Chinese, immigrants arrived in these rushes, so Victoria has a relatively large Asian population.

Outside Victoria, the stereotype the state and Melbourne in particular have is that of being a bit 'old glory' - Melburnians do tend to exhibit a great nostalgia for some of the city's claims to fame (e.g at the time of Federation, Melbourne was the second largest and second wealthiest city in the British Empire, Melbourne was Australia's first capital city from 1901 to 1927, and Melbourne hosted the first Olympic Games in Australia in 1956) - and a bit up themselves: they're seen as artsy, lazy, thieves, and will take any excuse to avoid a good day's work (although that last one could apply to any Aussie). It's worth noting that Sydneysiders stereotypically have a bit of an issue with Melbournians (and vice versa). Residents of Adelaide also have an issue with Melbournians, however their perceived Melbourne/Adelaide rivalry is largely one-sided and goes unnoticed by most Melbournians (when it is noticed, it usually leads to the Adelaidian being patronised about it by the Melbournian). And that particular sausage is called "strasbourg", presumably after the city.

Queensland The third most populous state, Queensland is beaten only by Western Australia in terms of highest population growth rate. Here you will find most of Australia's tropical areas, such as the Australian rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef, but also the areas of the Sunshine and Gold Coasts, which are Australia's summer vacation spots, known for its surfing and theme parks. Here they play rugby as well, and have an intense rivalry with New South Wales because of it, coalescing in the NRL State-of-Origin matches (three times a season) which are among the most watched moments on Australian television in any given year. It's 'Devon' in Queensland too, although it varies a bit. Nicknamed "Banana-benders", or more recently "Cane Toads", as that species was first introduced into this state (and has since become a widespread pest). The term "deep north" is sometimes used for Queensland, with many of the same connotations as America's Deep South .

Queensland is also often compared to Alabama, Florida and California, which we'll let you sort out.note In fact, Queensland even has a history of plantations (sugarcane rather than cotton) staffed by labourers some of whom were forcibly abducted from across the sea (the South Sea Islanders ). It also has the second most rural population of any Australian state, so there are real similarities with Alabama here. John Oliver described it as Australia's most conservative state, although many Australians would consider WA a strong alternate candidate. Much as many Americans think of Texas the same way foreigners think of America, the same could apply to Australians and Queensland...although it could also be seen as Australia's Florida , for reasons that should become clear as you read on. Queensland is also infamous for being the retirement destination of choice by many aging Sydneysiders and Melburnians, desiring Queensland's warmer climate. Native Queenslanders refer to these types as 'Mexicans' (south of the border). There is a bitter on-going feud between those who want daylight savings, and those who don't.

Oh, and Brisbane has an Aussie Rules team that regularly wins Victoria's AFL has 3 premierships in a total of 23 seasons which does not make them exceptionally good puts them on par with most Victorian sides, especially when their last was in the 2003 season They are over half a century younger than most of the top Vic teams. But don't worry. Melbourne has a Rugby League side that keeps winning our NRL competition because their team was composed of Queenslanders. (Well, up until recently... when they were caught doing horrible things to the salary cap.) Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, likes to think of itself as a very, very large country town. It's known for holding massive fireworks displays at the drop of a hat (see the Riverfire festival, which while a lot of fun and very pretty, represents exactly nothing) and having an insane variety of nightclubs and pubs, largely centred around Brunswick Street in Fortitude Valley, and Edward Street in the CBD. Brisbane is also frequently hit by severe tropical storms. The other states never believe us when we say this, as Queensland is known for its weather being beautiful one day and perfect the next.

The rest of the country probably thinks this because you call yourselves the Sunshine State and have it stamped on all your number plates. Other places of note include the city of Cairns in the far north, home to very large crocodiles and the best marine biology institute in the world, the Daintree, one of the oldest surviving areas of rainforest in the world, and the area of Innisfail, which, when destroyed by a cyclone, raised the price of bananas by several dollars per kilo across large tracts of the southern hemisphere. There is also a literal City of Townsville , informally considered capital of North Queensland. Tasmania Everyone leaves out Tasmania, the smallest state in size and population. It was the second European settlement in the entire country (after New South Wales), and as such the is second oldest as well; but Hobart, its capital, is dwarfed by many cities on the mainland. Except for the pristine, World Heritage forests in the state's west, most mainlanders don't know much about the island or its inhabitants. Tasmanians play Aussie Rules (or rather, watch it, because they don't have a team in the major league) and call that particular sausage "Belgium".

Nicknamed "Apple Islanders" or "Taswegians", and often the subject of jokes about inbreeding and locals having two heads. You're more likely to hear older slang in the younger generation in this area, and even then it's still rarer than in the older generation. Americans: This is Australia's Maine,note Seriously—besides the climate, rugged terrain, overwhelming whiteness, and greenery, they're also about the same size (70,000-80,000 square kilometers) and have similar nicknames: Tasmania is the "Holiday Isle," while Maine is "Vacationland" but with less lobster and with three coasts. Until 1856 it was known as Van Diemen's Land, in honour of the Dutch explorers who originally found Australia. The change of name to Tasmania was in honour of one such explorer, Abel Tasman, who was in fact the first European to land on the shores of the island back in the 1600s. To a great extent is even more traditionally "British" than the mainland.

The great majority of the population is white, Asian people are represented by overseas students at the University of Tasmania in Hobart (the capital), mostly, and the only people of African descent you are likely to see are Somalian refugees only recently offered asylum. Tasmania has a much smaller "Night Life" than the mainland. The only things of note are a state Orchestra, an end of year food festival, a biennial arts festival endeavouring to bring some culture, and being host of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. It is normal for a young person wishing to make a career to move to the mainland (or the Big Island as we call it). Prices are generally lower, apart from food which must be flown in. Salamanca market, held every Saturday near the State parliament, offers examples of local arts and crafts. The only locally made programs Tasmania has are an antiques show, a fishing show, a travel show inexplicably marketed to Tasmanians, and the local news. Before his retirement the long term newsreader for one station was most popular talent for Tasmania every year in the nationwide TV Week Logie awards.

The sausage is called Belgium because once WWI started it wasn't popular to keep calling it German sausage, and it was renamed as Belgium in recognition of the country recently occupied by Germany. Still tastes like sausage. Port Arthur, one of the coldest places in the country, and originally where they sent convicts who didn't take the hint and shape up when they were sent to a penal colony to start with, was turned into a tourist trap and museum. Sadly, it is now best known as also the location of one of the worst shooting sprees in history, which led to a dramatic tightening of Australia's gun ownership laws. Tasmania is "roughly" divided into four sections. The South, Hobart and surrounds. Trendy, cosmopolitan, holier-than-thou wankers. Fairly moderate climate. The East Coast/Midlands, Triabunna, St Helens, Bicheno, Swansea (soft S, no Z. For all you British people out there). Consists of two types of people: Those on welfare, and those growing weed. More notorious places include Black Bobs (full of inbreds) and Rossarden (former mining town, which is so dodgy the police won't go there).

The North. Launceston, Burnie and Devonport. The north west is known for its Bible bashers, and Launceston for its degenerates and amazing sports people. Generally, the further North West you go the better the infrastructure due to the swinging nature of the electorate. The West Coast: Two types of places, places where people go on holidays and places where people should go on holidays. Places like Strahan etc are known for their touristy thingies. Doesn't mean that it isn't a lovely place. But looking further around you start to see run down mining towns which have become literal ghost towns. And if you dig around even further you find some of the most lovely destinations in Tasmania, with literally not a soul in sight. We could name these places, but we'd have to kill you. Also, some of the wilderness around here is incredibly incredibly dense. A convict escaped here once and ate all his fellow escapees. That's how tough it is. South Australia The only colony founded without any convicts. South Australia was originally more culturally mixed than the other states, with Cornish and German migrants and a reputation for tolerance and liberalism, but the east coast has since played catch-up thanks to bigger economies attracting more newcomers.

Divided into two rough areas, with the border along the theoretical Goyder's Line: South of the line is green, partly thanks to the River Murray, and contains almost all of the state's population (and most of that live in Adelaide, the capital); north of it is pretty much plain, mostly featureless desert, except for Coober Pedy, the famous opal mining town; Woomera, the famous rocket-launching site, and Lake Eyre, Australia's largest lake. This being the desert, of course, it rarely has any water in it, just salt. Within the green portion is the Adelaide Hills, the producers of almost all of Australia's wine, a lot of it very high quality. Although Adelaide is often seen as a "hole" (a place with little to do) by those outside and inside it ( what does happen always happens in the city ), it is Australia's fifth largest city, and it is gaining a cultural reputation thanks to the annual Fringe festival.

It was also the first Australian city to decriminalise homosexuality in the '70s, leading the now little-used epithet "Yass with poofters" ( Yass is a small, very dull country town, which did not at that point have homosexuals, at least not out of the closet. ) The combination of this and the Arts/Fringe festival has given the city and its inhabitants something of a reputation of being effete and artsy, and ever so slightly ridiculous with it; the famous cartoonist Bruce Petty characterised this with the phrase, supposedly said by a Festival organiser, "Let's put nonsense back into culture." Adelaide is also known as the City of Churches (originally City of Churches and Pubs), presumably because it has a lot of, um, churches, thanks to the variety of denominations which settled Adelaide (and the large number of pubs). It's also well known for the city planning done by Colonel Light, where the city centre is surrounded by beautiful parklands on a (mostly aligned) grid rather than just haphazard urban sprawl, with a distinct lack of one-way streets compared to the other capitals.

Apparently, thanks to the "water" in the River Murray, Adelaide water is incredibly foul tasting or even toxic to people from the eastern states, which has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that millions of Queenslanders, Victorians and New South Welshmen use the river before it gets to Adelaide. Here they play Australian rules football, with two AFL teams and the local SANFL league. The sausage is called "fritz" over in South Australia. South Australians are nicknamed "Croweaters". It's also a recurring joke that half of Adelaide's population are potential serial murderers, though to be honest it isn't exactly unfounded. (Well, ours are more creative, anyway...) The most publicly known being when bodies were found in a bank vault in Snowtown (actually a hundred-odd miles away on the road to Perth, though it'll become a suburb soon anyway as Adelaide's urban sprawl gets increasingly ridiculous). South Australians (along with WA, the NT and perhaps Tasmania) generally feel as though they are ignored/forgotten by the big eastern states since they are much more geographically isolated.

It's not uncommon for an "Australian tour" by an international music act to consist of shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane only (they may do one in Adelaide or Perth but rarely both, for some reason). Often an Australia wide music festival will have big music acts only perform in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. That doesn't stop anyone complaining about ticket prices when an artist deigns to perform here though. Broken Hill: Officially part of New South Wales, Broken Hill has very strong cultural ties to South Australia due to its location. For all intents and purposes, everyone considers Broken Hill a part of SA. It even runs of SA time. Offer Void In Nebraska applies here, often SA-wide offers or specials include the fine print of being available anywhere in South Australia and Broken Hill. Even some legal opinions count Broken Hill as South Australian. Western Australia The largest state by area, Western Australia is sparsely populated outside the major cities like Perth [the capital] and Kalgoorlie [mining town out in the middle of the desert]. The current resources boom in the North West nicely props up the country's economy. Western Australia could be considered a mining industry with some support services.

Interestingly it was also the only colony to specifically ask for convicts back in the day. Due to its distance from the rest of Australia (several hours by plane or a week driving over the featureless Nullarbor plain), Western Australia has mostly kept to itself throughout the years. Here they play AFL as well, with two teams in the AFL and the local WAFL (pronounced "waffle"). They eat the sausage "polony". Western Australians are nicknamed "Sandgropers". Has lots of English immigrants, and also a lot of South Africans (Afrikaners and others who wanted to leave SA for various reasons often found themselves in Perth, as it's actually not that far). The CBD of Perth is busy during the day but looks like the apocalypse has happened as soon as the shops close, when then most of the people seem to move to Northbridge (named because it is north of the bridge that goes over the train line and separates the suburb from the CBD) with a decent number of bars and clubs and some amazing restaurants. Perth also holds the distinction of being the most isolated capital city in Australia (as well as the windiest!). It also holds a very high cost of living that surpasses Sydney and Melbourne.

The rest of the state is mostly desert and mines. Though there are some good wineries in the south-west. Also, one town in northern WA was quite literally wiped off the map because its one major business was an asbestos mine. The very ground itself is actually toxic. We don't like the rest of the country, and if they'd let us go, we'd go. Oh great, we have our own Texas. Actually... you already do. Fun fact: In 1933, over 68% of the population in Western Australia voted for independence. The only reason the state still remained part of the federation was that nobody else noticed. Fun fact: On the year of Federation, while a slim majority of Western Australians voted for inclusion, the state government vehemently lobbied to avoid nationhood and remain a British colony. The British refused to keep them. We really would go. Believe me, without WA Australia would be in DEEP recession right about now, just like the US. Good luck with defence and such a tiny population for such a large 'country.' You avoid doing so because you know that without the rest of Australia, WA would only have one bloodline.

Standing joke about WA: A man is flying over to Perth on business. During the journey he gains the attention of a flight attendant and asks, "Excuse me, but how far back should I wind my watch for WA time?" The flight attendant, deadpan, states, "Oh, about ten years." Hence why WA stands for 'Wait Awhile' This sandgroper is embarrassed to see that the sections for Tasmania and South Australia have more detail. This troper's more amused by how more than half the WA entry is WA natives griping about how they'd leave if everyone else let them and everyone else either making fun of them for it or egging them on. The Australian Capital Territory Technically just Canberra, but also includes a part of the Australian Highlands. Here we find the House of Parliament, standing on a hill surrounded by the rings of roads and overlooking the man-made Lake Burley Griffin. Canberra was built on a sheep paddock in 1908, which early political satirists seized upon with vigour. It is a planned city, and is also known for being somewhat dull.

In many ways, it is (sometimes unfairly) lumped into the category of Southern New South Wales, but it has a distinctiveness which keeps it separate from the surrounding state. Briefly had the license plate slogan "Feel the Power of Canberra", until someone realised that the rest of the country read that as "Feel the Power of the Federal Government". It has it's own government run along state government lines, but as it is smaller than many city councils, it tends to be a little strange. The 'Fresh Sun-Ripened Tomato Party' is currently in power. Canberra is also Australia's porn capital. Yay Canberra! You can call sausage whatever you like. Notable for its round-abouts. And Bendy Buses. The town of Woden was named by a Norse farmer who named it after the god Odin from Norse mythology. Also a worthy mention is the unpredictable weather; which can go from sunny to stormy in practically no time at all. And it gets cold: if you're going to Canberra at any time near winter, take a very thick jacket.

It is in fact more unpredictable and colder than the weather in famously unpredictable and (for Australia) chilly Melbourne, with average lows during the winter hovering around 0°C, while Melbourne "enjoys" temperatures a good 5-6 degrees warmer. (Sydney's winter lows are a good 3-4 degrees higher than that.) Canberra's elevation takes the credit—or blame—for this state of affairs, being over 500 metres above sea level (Melbourne and Sydney are of course on the coast and thus very near sea level). The Northern Territory Divided roughly into two areas: the north, which is relatively highly populated and includes the capital Darwin, and the rest of the territory, which is sparsely populated except for Yulara, the town closest to Uluru; Alice Springs, the city in the dead centre (literally!) of Australia; Katherine; and Tennant Creek (the other major cities). Contains much of Australia's Indigenous Australian population, especially in Arnhem Land in the Top End.

Contains Uluru, the world's largest monolith and sacred site of the Pitjantjatjara and Yankuntjatjara peoples, and the tropical rainforests in Arnhem Land, somewhat under threat due to uranium mining. Northern Territorians are nicknamed "Topenders" or "Croc-bait". Also known for drinking a lot. A "Darwin stubby" is much bigger than anyone else's stubby. A stubby, oddly enough, is not any kind of sausage at all. It is a type of beer bottle. The NT also has an ... interesting newspaper called the NT News (and Sunday Territorian). Often showed last on national news round ups for laughs. It generally only has one of five things on the front page: crocodiles, cane toads, cyclones, chicks or UFOs. It was recently used in a meme , much to the amusement of locals. On the whole the paper is the laughingstock of the country, and looked on with equal parts pride and disdain by Territorians.

Although Darwin is a capital city, it is so small (a bit over 100 000 people) that it isn't really counted as such in many contexts (a trait it shares with Hobart and/or Canberra on occasion). It's not uncommon for something to be available in "all capital cities" ... but not Darwin (which serves as something of a Berserk Button to locals). By the way, since the Territory was settled later and more slowly than other places in Australia, its particular brand of Australian English is a mixture of all the others. That sausage is therefore called whatever it is in the state you or your parents came from. (Some households may have two different names if the parents came from different cities.) Other Territories Not much happens in these places. Most Australians don't even remember they exist. Ashmore and Cartier Islands Australian Antarctic Territory: Larger than any other nations Antarctic Territory, and about as exciting as you'd expect for a giant ice block. Treated as a single unit legally but in fact two, geographically separate areas. The French Antarctic Territory is between them. Christmas Island Known in Australia mainly for its refugee detention centre, before former Prime Minister Tony Abbott put all the refugees in {{Nauru} instead.

Less well known is that the population of Christmas Island is ethnically 70% Chinese, 20% Malay and 10% European. Cocos (Keeling) Islands Most Australians haven't heard of this place, and even less well known is that of the 600 people who live here, 500 are ethnically Malay (Cocos Malay, a derivative of Malaysian Malay, is spoken as much as English here) while only 100 are Caucasian and that it is the only part of Australia where Islam is the dominant religion, with 60% of Cocos Islanders adhering to the faith. On a more pessimistic note, unemployment and welfare dependance is relatively high here too. Coral Sea Islands Territory This BBC article has an outline of Norfolk Island and its distinctive people and history. It also shows the opposition that Norfolk Islanders have towards any further integration into Australia and their Chief Minister's belief that the territory's economic woes can be solved by full independence and nationhood . Some of us Aussies also consider New Zealand to be our second-best state (second, of course, to whichever one we happen to live in).

Some Sydneysiders think of New Zealand as a suburb, christening it "East Bondi". Which should tell you something about Sydneysiders. It's worth noting that the Colony of New Zealand could have become a state, if it had ratified the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act. So could Fiji, in fact. Both colonies refused. Isn't history interesting? Also, they have sheep. Lots of sheep. They have 7 times as many sheep as humans. note Originally this was a 20 sheep-per-human ratio (!). Sheep numbers have halved since 1982 while the human population has increased one third, largely because of droughts, lamb and wool prices dropping, and there being more money to be made in other agriculture such as dairy. As of 2011 there are 4.4 million humans and 31.1 million sheep according to the government statisticians. Which is why Australians make so many jokes about New Zealand and sheep-fucking. This is referenced in Hetalia , where New Zealand has a little sheep companion, and Scandinavia and the World , whose New Zealand is a sheep that gets on well with the human Wales . Later on in the comic we meet New South Wales...

a talking lamb. New Zealand is the country equivalent of a little brother: you have a fair bit in common, you really do kind of like them, and it's your sworn duty to pick on them mercilessly. :: Indexes :: Newcastle Culture - ISA <small>View ISA Newcastle in a larger map</small> Tiny Travel Story: Australia What's Newcastle Like? Newcastle offers you a coastal landscape, surf beaches, working harbor, historic sites, the arts and a vibrant nightlife. The Civic Cultural Precinct is where you'll find the Newcastle Regional Museum, Art Gallery, Civic Theatre, Civic Playhouse and the University's Music and Business schools. Newcastle City hosts the This is Not Art Festival, Surfest and the Maritime Festival which annually attract tens of thousands of visitors from Sydney, and the Central and Northern Coast. Newcastle is built around a large harbor and just a few miles from magnificent beaches. Ranked the #9 city in the world by Lonely Planet for 2011, this vibrant, cosmopolitan city has a favorable climate with a relaxed and welcoming culture. The city's connection to the sea is apparent in the abundance of water activities and lively beach lifestyle.

With a rich maritime history, energetic arts culture, cool bars, and acclaimed restaurants, Newcastle is a great place to be. Region and Population The second largest city in the Australian state of New South Wales, the metropolitan area of Newcastle boasts a population of over 500,000 people. Located just a two-hour train ride north of Sydney, this beautiful city allows easy access to beaches, countryside, bushland and cityscape. Climate Newcastle enjoys a pleasant climate year round - similar to the central Californian coast. Summer is warm to hot (68F - 83F) and winter is mild (49F - 64F). Precipitation is heaviest in late autumn and early winter, but generally pretty consistent throughout the year. Type

Question: In which Australian state is the city of Newcastle?
Answer: New South Wales