New South Wales

On 13th May 1787, Captain Arthur Phillip left England with eleven ships filled principally with soldiers and convicts. He landed successfully at Botany Bay on 18th January 1788, but found the position too exposed and moved to Port Jackson, a few kilometres further north, and established a new settlement there on 26th January 1788.

The new settlement was to become Sydney and the new colony New South Wales, Sydney being named after Lord Sydney, the British Secretary of State for Home Affairs, who had authorised the colonisation scheme. There were 1,373 new settlers, of whom 732 were convicts.

Now New South Wales is the most populous of the Australian states with 6.5 million people, almost exactly one-third of the total population of Australia. Many visitors see only the coastal areas, but inland lies a different type of outback terrain well worth investigating. Your impression of the state, and indeed of Australia, will be totally different depending on whether you have simply followed the tourist groove up the coast or whether you have explored the splendour of the interior.

Some of the places to explore in New South Wales are listed below.

Albury-Wodonga
Armidale
Batemans Bay
Bathurst
Bellingen
Berrima
Blue Mountains
Bombala
Bourke
Bowral
Broken Hill
Byron Bay
Coffs Harbour
Cooma
Dubbo
Eden
Goulburn
Great Lakes
Grafton
Griffiths
Hunter Valley
Jindabyne
Lightning Ridge
Lord Howe Island
Merimbula
Mollymook
Mudgee
Nambucca
Newcastle
Nimbin
Parkes
Perisher Blue
Port Macquarie
Port Stephens
Sydney
Tamworth
Tenterfield
Thredbo
Wagga Wagga
Wollongong
Yamba