Australia's territorial boundaries

Introduction

The Commonwealth of Australia is unique in being a country that occupies a whole continent. It is the largest continental island on Earth and is located between the Indian and Pacific Oceans in the southern hemisphere, stretching from 10 degrees south to 44 degrees south of latitude and 113 degrees east to 154 degrees east of longitude. It has an area of 7.6 million square kilometres and a continuous coastline of some 20 000 kilometres. Research suggests that the country has been divided into groups and territories by human settlers for as long as 40 000 years by the first Aboriginal people. When Europeans arrived in Australia in 1788, the eastern half of the continent was occupied and made the British colony of New South Wales. By the end of the following century, the land was wholly occupied and divided into six colonies, each with a colonial government. Today, it is divided into six States and two Territories, governed both by separate State governments and a national federal government. The states located on Australia's mainland include New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia. Its states also include Tasmania, which is the country's only island State, and is located off the mainland's south-east coast. Its territories include the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, which is the country's only State or Territory not to adjoin the coastline and is surrounded by land.

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Border History of Indigenous Australians

Aboriginal peoples have inhabited Australia for over 40 000 years. In that time, Aboriginal peoples were traditionally hunters and gatherers, moving around their territories foraging for food and water. The first maps of Aboriginal territories were drawn in sand and on rock walls to identify sources of water and food as well as areas of cultural importance. Their division of the land was more like that of current Australian local governments with the present Aboriginal population being more evenly spread across the continent than the total Australian population.

The size of a group's territory reflected how often and where Aboriginal groups moved. Their movements were not helter-skelter, as they had well understood territorial limits beyond which they strayed only under unusual circumstances. Research suggests that there were 500 to 600 tribes, each recognising the territoriality of others. Each tribe often included several clans of a few dozen members. Their territories were also shaped by climate and the average amount of rainfall. Territories were smaller with a higher density population in well-watered and resource-rich areas along rivers and coastlines. Larger territories with lower population densities were in desert areas.

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Border History of European Settlement

The view held by British settlers when they claimed Australia in 1788 was that Australia was Terra nullius meaning 'empty land' or 'a land that is not occupied'. They believed that because the land was not cultivated and there were no permanent settlements, the land was not occupied. This gave settlers reign in shaping Australia's present States and Territories, which they first began to do in drawing maps by hand as they sailed around the coastline and, later, in maps drawn following inland exploration. The outlined boundaries reflected the history of penal settlement and free settler migration into all corners of the country. They also reflected the expansion of pastoral industry and the issuing of pastoral leases from land previously occupied by Aboriginal groups. As the European occupation of the continent progressed, the land was divided into colonies which progressively took over from the colonial administration based in London. Mineral wealth, particularly gold, aided the development of colonies into self-governing States in which the largest city became the seat of government.

Measuring the size, shape, and physical position of these States and Territories was difficult for colonial surveyors. Colonial surveyors dealt with all kinds of obstacles, including floods, droughts, food shortages and other harsh weather conditions. As a result, border disputes frequently occurred between States. Where disputes occurred, rulings upheld the position of borders with established property lines. This was despite the efforts of modern surveyors to plot state borders as originally planned. Few of these borders reflect their originally intended shape but they have remained as Australia's boundaries since the States agreed to federate into a single nation in 1901.

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Borders Reflecting Settlement

Each of the States is dominated by one major metropolitan capital located on the coast. Australians living in these States are primarily urban with 86% occupying towns and cities of more than 1000 people. Their settlement is concentrated in south-eastern Australia in a narrow crescent, 300-400 kilometres wide, from just north of Brisbane to Adelaide. The highest ranking metropolises in this area are Sydney and Melbourne which are among the 40 largest cities in the world. The size of city territories stands in contrast to rural settlement size which reflects much lower population density (mostly below five persons per square kilometre). There are few settlements in these areas with densities greater than ten persons per square kilometre and there are places where there is little or no settlement. State borders reflect this by being necessarily large enough to accommodate the vast unsettled areas located between the major cities and population centres.

States, Territories and Capitals

New South Wales

The boundaries of New South Wales were the first drawn in Australia by European settlers in 1788. New South Wales is located in the eastern part of Australia and has the longest border of the States and Territories, adjoining Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and Jervis Bay Territory, totalling 4635 kilometres in length. It contains both the State capital of Sydney and the national capital of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory. Its capital city, Sydney, and other coastal towns within the State borders make New South Wales the most densely populated State.

Sydney is Australia's largest metropolis in size. Initial settlement took place on the shores of Sydney Cove, a small indentation on the south side of Port Jackson Bay near the present commercial core of present-day Sydney. The sheltered nature of the bay was suited to sea-related commercial practices but major settlement has concentrated more to the north and south because the bay was not suitable for accommodating contemporary urban sprawl. The numerous minor coves and other indentations that fragment the city have given rise to a maze-like street pattern. Sydney vies with Melbourne as the leading commercial city and industrial centre of the country.

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Victoria

Victoria is located in the south eastern part of Australia and adjoins New South Wales and South Australia with a border 2541 kilometres in length. Victoria's boundaries were recognised when it was made a colony separate from New South Wales in 1851. At this time, there was conjecture about where its border should lie. It was originally intended to make the Murrumbidgee River the State boundary as this reflected the then-favoured natural boundaries of the area. However, it was decided to define the border as stretching from Cape Howe, the eastern-most point of Victoria, along the River Murray, which was an important trading route, and onto the border of South Australia.

Victoria contains the State capital of Melbourne which is also Australia's second most influential city apart from Sydney. It was founded near the head of Port Phillip Bay to be the major centre of a pastoral hinterland. However, the Victorian gold rushes of the 1850s had a changing influence on Melbourne with the rise of mineral and agricultural productivity and rapid urban growth. In the nineteenth century, Melbourne was both originally larger than Sydney and the temporary national capital until Canberra was finally sited.

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Queensland

Queensland is located in the north eastern part of Australia and adjoins New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory with a border 3,339 kilometres in length. Queensland was made a colony separate from New South Wales in 1859. It contains the State capital of Brisbane which has grown rapidly to become Australia's third largest urban centre. The city was established on the navigable Brisbane River roughly 16 kilometres inland from the coast. It occupies land on both sides of the river, spreading east toward the coast and westward into the foothills of the Great Dividing Range. The State also contains several smaller cities of regional significance. Townsville and Rockhampton are the leading centres of the northern and central areas of the State. Inland cities include Toowoomba and Ipswich, as well as the Gold Coast which is a growing seaside resort agglomeration.

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South Australia

South Australia is located in the lower central part of Australia and adjoins all of the mainland States and the Northern Territory with a border 3185 kilometres in length. Boundaries for the planned colony of South Australia were first established in 1836 and took their present form in 1861 with the establishment of other adjoining States. They were centred on the settlement of Adelaide, which was laid out in a rectangular pattern on the narrow coastal plain between the Gulf of Saint Vincent and the Mount Lofty Ranges. There are no cities in South Australia that are comparable in size to higher ranking settlements. The State contains the government-founded industrial and residential centre of Elizabeth, which being only 24 kilometres from the commercial core of Adelaide was absorbed as a metropolitan suburb.

Western Australia

The boundaries of Australia's western State were established in 1829 at its founding as the only Australian colony open to free settlers and not a penal settlement. The State adjoins South Australia and the Northern Territory with a border of 1862 kilometres. It contains the state capital of Perth which is arguably the world's most isolated city, located 2240 kilometres from its nearest urban neighbour. The city was established on the Swan River, roughly 16 kilometres inland from the coast. The expansion of Perth reflects its character as the centre of a planned agricultural and pastoral colony and the gold rushes that occurred in the 1890s. It has since surpassed Adelaide as the nation's fourth most populous metropolitan area. Other major centres include Perth's outport, Fremantle, the heavy industrial centre of Kwinana and the commercial goldfields centre of Kalgoorlie.

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Tasmania

The island State of Tasmania shares both a marine and a short land-based border with its neighbouring mainland State of Victoria. The marine border between the two States is a parallel of latitude 39^o12' and is 0.085 kilometres in length. The overland border stretches across an islet that is six hectares in size called Boundary Islet. Its capital, Hobart, is the smallest of the State capitals. It was founded in 1804 as a supplementary penal colony on the southwest side of the broad estuary of the Derwent River. Hobart occupies an area between this river and Mount Wellington. Its expansion reflects early periods of prosperity but it has experienced slow growth in comparison to other capitals.

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Northern Territory

The borders of the Northern Territory were formed out of a colony previously administered by New South Wales and South Australian governments. It gained status as a separate Territory in 1911 with a border that is 3179 kilometres in length, adjoining Western Australia, South Australia, and Queensland. The Territory's administrative centre and only general port is located in the capital of Darwin. Another important regional trading town is Alice Springs which is situated close to the exact centre of the continent.

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Australian Capital Territory

The Australian Capital Territory is the only land-locked territory and is located in the State of New South Wales with a border length of 306 kilometres. The location and boundaries of the ACT were decided upon after a seven-year search from the confederation agreement of 1901, which stated that the federal capital should be at least 160 kilometres from Sydney. In the 1920s, construction of the capital began and the status of capital was officially moved from Melbourne to Canberra in 1927. The nature of Canberra's design and planning was unique from other capitals and in recent years it has been the fastest growing Australian city.

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