1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/New South Wales

​NEW SOUTH WALES, a state of the Australian Commonwealth. The name was given by Captain Cook, in his exploratory voyage in 1770, to the southern portion of the eastern coast of Australia, from some imagined resemblance of its coast-line to that of South Wales. The name was afterwards extended to the eastern half of Australia, but now designates a much more restricted area. New South Wales is bounded by the PacificOcean on the E., by Queensland on the N., by South Australia on the W. and by Victoria on the S. It lies between 28° and 38° S. lat., and 141° and 154° E. long. The coast-line, which is about 700 m. in length, extends from Cape Howe (37° 30′)at the south-eastern corner of Australia to Point Danger in28° 7′ S. The colony is approximately rectangular in form,with an average depth from the coast of 650 m. and an averagewidth from north to south of 500 m. The superficial area isestimated at 310,700 sq. m., or about one-tenth of the whole ofAustralia.

Physical Configuration.—The surface of the state is dividednaturally into three distinct zones, each widely differing in generalcharacter and physical aspect, and clearly defined by the GreatDividing Range running from north to south. The tableland,which forms the summit of the range, comprises one of the threezones and separates the other zones, viz. the coastal region, andthe great plain district of the interior. The main range followsthe line of the coast, varying from 30 to 140 m. distant, beingnearest at the south and receding the farthest at the sourcesof the Goulburn river, the main tributary of the Hunter. Thecrest of this range is, in some places, narrow; in others it spreadsout into a wide tableland. The eastern slopes are, as a rule,rugged and precipitous, but the western versant falls gentlyto plains. The highest part of the Dividing Range is in thesouth-eastern portions of the state, on the borders of Victoria.Here some of the peaks rise to a height of over 7000 ft.; one ofthese, Mount Kosciusco, the highest peak in Australia, attainsan elevation of 7328 ft. The tableland varies greatly in elevation,but nowhere does it fall below 1500 ft., and in places it reachesan average of 5000 ft. The great plain district, lying West of thetableland, is part of a vast basin which comprises portions ofQueensland, South Australia and Victoria, as well as of NewSouth Wales. The great plains are traversed by a few rivers,whose long and uncertain courses carry their waters to the riverMurray, which empties itself into the Southern Ocean throughthe state of South Australia, and during 1250 m. of its courseforms the boundary between the states of New South Walesand Victoria. The Murray has a very tortuous course, as maybe judged from the fact that the measurement along the jointboundary of New South Wales and Victoria is only 460 m. in astraight line, the river course being 1250. The chief tributariesof the Murray are the Darling and the Murrumbidgee, which isjoined by the Lachlan The Murray and the Murrumbidgee arepermanent streams, but the Darling occasionally ceases to runin part of its course, and' for a thousand miles above its junctionwith the Murray it receives no tributary. In its upper coursethe Darling receives numerous tributaries. Those on the rightbank all come from Queensland and bring down enormousvolumes of water in flood time; on the left bank the most importanttributaries are the Gwydir, Namoi, Castlereagh, Boganand Macquarie. Here and there along the course of the westernrivers are found lagoons, sometimes of considerable dimensions.These are commonly called lakes, but are in reality shallowdepressions receiving water from the overflow of the rivers intimes of flood, and in return feeding them when the floods havesubsided.

The coastal belt differs greatly from the other divisions ofthe state. The main range gives rise to numerous rivers flowingeastward to the South Pacific. Almost everywhere between themain range and the sea the country is hilly and serrated, moreparticularly in the southern portions of the state. In the Illawarradistrict, 50 m. south of Sydney, the mountains skirt thevery edge of the coast, but farther north there is a wider coast-land,with greater stretches of country available for tillage andpasture.

Along the sea-board are twenty-two well-defined headlandsor capes and about a score of bays or inlets, to mark which fornavigators there are thirty-four lighthouses. There are fourvery fine natural harbours, viz. Jervis Bay, Port Jackson,Broken Bay and Port Stephens, and several others of minor importance.Port Jackson, on which is situated the city of Sydney,is one of the six greatest ports of the British empire. Theport second of commercial importance to Sydney is Newcastle,at the mouth of the Hunter river, which is the great coal-shippingport of the colony. Secondary harbours, available for coastingsteamers, south of Sydney are at Port Hacking, Wollongong, ​Kiama, Shoalhaven, Bateman’s Bay, Ulladulla, Merimbula,and Twofold Bay. North of Sydney the secondary ports areat the mouths of the Hawkesbury, Manning, Hastings, Macleay,Nambucca, Bellingen, Clarence, Richmond and Tweed rivers.The rivers of the sea-board are as just enumerated, the only otherof importance being the Hunter. The Richmond drains an areaof 2400 sq. m. and is navigable for 60 m. The Clarence is a finestream draining an area of 8000 sq. m.; it has a course of240 m. navigable for 67 m. The Macleay drains an area of 4800sq. m., and empties at Trial Bay after a course of 200 m., ofwhich 20 m. are navigable. The Hastings and Manning are bothimportant rivers. The Hunter is one of the chief rivers of thestate and embouches at Port Hunter or Newcastle Harbour aftera course of 200 m. It drains an area of 11,000 sq. m., more thantwice the area of the Thames basin. Less commercially importantthan the Hunter, the Hawkesbury is nevertheless a fine stream;it has a course of 330 m., of which 70 m. are navigable. Southof Sydney the rivers are of less importance; the principal is theShoalhaven, 260 m. long, draining an area of 3300 sq. m.

Climate.—The three geographical regions above describedconstitute three distinct climatic divisions. The coastal region,28° to 37° S. lat., shows a difference between the average summerand winter temperatures of only 24° Fahrenheit. Sydney, whichis situated midway between the extreme points of the state(33° 51′ S.), has a mean temperature of 63°, the mean summertemperature being 71° and that of winter 54°, showing a meanrange of 17°; the highest temperature in the shade experiencedat Sydney in 1896 was 108·5°, and the lowest 35·9. The coastaldistrict has an area of 38,000 sq. m., over which there is anaverage rainfall of 42 in. The rainfall is greatest at the sea-board,diminishing inland; the fall also diminishes from north to south.Sydney has an average fall of 50 in., while the Clarence Heads,in the north, has 58 in., and Eden, in the south, 35·5 in. Thetableland is a distinct climatic region. On the high southernplateau, at an elevation of 4640 ft., stands the town of Kiandra,with a mean summer temperature of 56·4° and winter of 32·5°.Cooma, in the centre of the Monaro plains, at an elevation of2637 ft., has a mean summer temperature of 65·9° and winter,41·7°; its summers are therefore as mild as those of Londonor Paris, while its winters are much less severe. On the NewEngland tableland, under latitude 30° S., the yearly averagetemperature is 56·5°, the mean summer 67·7° and the meanwinter 44·3°. The tablelands cover an area of 85,000 sq. m.and have an average rainfall of 32·6 in.; there is, however, asmall area in the southern portion where an average fall of 64 in.is experienced. In the western division, or great plains, severeheat is experienced throughout the summer, and on occasionaldays the thermometer in the shade ranges above 100° Fahrenheit,but it is a dry heat and more easily borne than a much less degreeof temperature at the sea-board. The mean summer temperatureranges between 75° at Deniliquin in the south and 84° at Bourke.The mean range in winter is between 48° and 54·5°, and, accompaniedas this is with clear skies, the season is very refreshing.West of the tableland the amount of rainfall decreases as thedistance from the Pacific increases, and in a large area west ofthe Darling the average annual rainfall does not exceed 10 in.For the whole western division, embracing an area of 188,000sq. m., the average rainfall is 19·8 in.  (T. A. C.) 

Geology.—New South Wales consists geologically as well as geographicallyof three main divisions which traverse the state fromnorth to south. The highlands of eastern Australia form the middlebelt of the state, to the east of which are the low coastal districtsand to the west the wide western plains. The highlands of NewSouth Wales consist, geographically, of a series of tablelands, nowin the condition of dissected peneplains; geologically, they arebuilt of a foundation of Archean and folded Lower Palaeozoic rocks,covered in places by sheets of more horizontal Upper Palaeozoicand Mesozoic rocks; these deposits occur along the edge of thehighlands, and are widely distributed on the floor of the coastaldistricts. They have been lowered to this level by a monoclinal fold,which has brought down the Mesozoic rocks, so that they extendeastward to the coast, where they dip beneath the sea. The westernplains contain isolated ridges of the old Archean and Lower Palaeozoicrocks; but in the main, they consist of plains of Cretaceousbeds covered by Cainozoic drifts. The stratified rocks in the highlandsstrike north and south, as if they had been crumpled into folds,in Upper Palaeozoic times, by pressure from east to west. The weakareas in the crust caused by the earth movements were invaded bygreat masses of Devonian granites. They altered the Lower Palaeozoicrocks on their edges, and were once thought to have convertedwide areas of Lower Palaeozoic rocks into schists and gneisses.Most of these foliated rocks, however, are doubtless of Archean age.The highland rocks no doubt once extended along the whole lengthof the state from north to south; but they are now crossed by aband of Upper Palaeozoic sediments, which extend up to the valleyof the Hunter river and separate the Blue Mountains and theSouthern Highlands of New South Wales from the New Englandtableland to the north.

The oldest rocks in New South Wales are referrable to the Archeansystem, and consist of gneisses and schists, including the glaucophane-schistsin the New England tableland, and hornblende-schistsof Berthong. The Archean rocks are comparatively sparselyexposed in New South Wales. They enter the state from the south,being continuous with the Archean block of north-eastern Victoria.They occupy a large area in the western districts of New SouthWales, where a projection from the Archean plateau of centralAustralia crosses into the state from South Australia; it is bestexposed in the Barrier Ranges around Broken Hill. Cambrian rockshave not yet been discovered in New South Wales; but Pittmanhas recorded an Agnostus from Mandurama, near Orange. Therocks of the Ordovician system, though widely distributed, have notalways been separated from the Silurian rocks, which they oftenclosely resemble lithologically. The occurrence of Ordovician rockswas first established by Dun at Tomingley, 33 m. S.W. of Dubbo,where he discovered graptolites that he identified as Climacograptusand Dicellograptus. Other graptolites have been found near Orange,and at Lyndhurst, near Carcoar. The fossiliferous horizon is ofUpper Ordovician age. The extent of the Ordovician will probablybe increased by addition of areas, which cannot yet be separatedfrom the Silurian. The Silurian system is the best-known constituentof the Lower Palaeozoic foundation of New South Wales.The rocks consist of sandstones, quartzites, slates and shales, associatedwith lenticular masses of limestone. The typical Silurian rocksare richly fossiliferous, the shales containing trilobites, the sandstonesmany brachiopods, and the limestones a rich coral and bryozoanfauna. There are also beds of chert, which are largely composedof radiolaria. Caves have been dissolved in the limestones by undergroundstreams; the jenolan caves in the Blue Mountains andthose of Yarrangobilly and the Goulburn district are the most famous.The slates of the Silurian have been bent into folds, and saddle reefsoccur along the axis of the folds, as at Hargraves. Numerousquartz reefs occur both in the Silurian and Ordovician rocks. Inthese reefs the chief mineral is gold. Some schists, attributed tothe Silurian, but possibly older, contain platinum; and associatedwith the limestones are beds of copper.

The rocks of the Devonian system rest unconformably upon theSilurian; but some beds of which the age is still uncertain arecalled Devono-Silurian. The Devonian beds are well developed inthe Blue Mountains, where the lower Devonian sediments at MountLambie are estimated to be 10,000 ft. in thickness. They are extensivelydeveloped along the Cox river and along the slopes ofMount Canoblas. They are also developed in the New South Waleshighlands, to the south-east of Goulburn. Some of the best-knownexposures are in the ranges which rise above the western plains,such as the Rankin Range on the Darling and the Kokopara Rangeto the north of the Murrumbidgee. The Devonian rocks at Yalwalare sharply folded and are associated with a series of rhyolites andbasic lavas. The lower part of this series is probably Lower Devonian;and it is covered by shales and volcanic rocks belongingto the Upper Devonian. In the extreme south-east of New SouthWales, at the head of the Genoa river, are sandstones with Archaeopterishowitti, which are an extension of the Lower Devonian bedsof Victoria; while farther to the east, at Eden and Twofold Bay,are Upper Devonian sandstones.

The Devonian system is separated from the Carboniferous by aninterval, during which there were powerful earth movements; theyproduced a lofty mountain chain, running north and south acrossNew South Wales. The highlands are the worn down stumps ofthis mountain line. In Lower Carboniferous times these mountainswere snow-capped, and the valleys on their flanks were occupied byglaciers.

The Lower Carboniferous beds are represented by conglomeratesand sandstones with some shales and limestones. The sandstonesare characterized by Lepidodendron (Bergeria) australe. It is associatedwith beds of lava and volcanic ash, some of which containcopper ores. Granites and granodiorites were intruded at this periodinto the older rocks, and altered the adjacent Devonian beds intoslates and quartzites, and formed gold-quartz veins, which havebeen worked in the Devonian rocks at Yalwal. The Lower Carboniferousrocks also occur in the Blue Mountains along the Cox riverand Capertee river; and a northern continuation occurs along thewestern slope of the New England tableland, from the Macintyreriver to the Queensland border.

The Upper Carboniferous rocks are most important from theirrich seams of coal. They occupy from 24,000 to 28,000 sq. m.,which are best exposed in the Hunter river and around Newcastle. ​

​

Farther south, they disappear beneath the Mesozoic sandstones,from which they again rise along the coast around Lake Illawarraand near the mouth of the Shoalhaven river. The Coal Measureshave been reached under Sydney, by a deep bore at Balmain, whichpierced a seam of coal 10 ft. thick, at the depth of 2917 ft. The CoalMeasures are classified by Professor T. W. David as follows:—

	Ft.
1. Upper or Newcastle Coal Measures, containing   an aggregate of about 100 ft. of coal	1,150
2. Dempsey Series; freshwater beds, containing   no productive coal. This series thins out   completely in certain directions	2,000
3. Middle, or Tomago, or East Maitland Coal   Measures, containing an aggregate of about   40 ft. of coal	570
4. Upper Marine Series; specially characterized by    the predominance of Productus brachythaerus	5,000
5. Lower or Greta Coal Measures, containing an   aggregate of about 20 ft. of coal	130
6. Lower Marine Series; specially characterized by   the predominance of Eurydesma cordata	4,800
	———
	13,650

Geologically, perhaps, the most interesting rocks in the Carboniferousare the glacial conglomerates, containing ice-scratched,erratic blocks. Some of the boulders are encrusted by marineorganisms and must have been dropped by icebergs in the sea. Thenorthern limit of the glacial beds is in dispute; they have beendescribed as far north as Ashford. The Carboniferous beds containnumerous sheets and flows of basalt and andesite. A syenite massifof this age occurs at Mittagong; and leucite has been discovered inCarboniferous basalts by David.

The Mesozoic rocks of New South Wales begin with the NarrabeenShales; they are covered by the Hawkesbury Sandstones, which arewell exposed around Sydney; and they in turn are covered by theWianamatta Shales. The Triassic age of the Hawkesbury Sandstoneis supported by the evidence of the fossil fish; though, accordingto Dr Smith Woodward, they may perhaps be Rhaetic. But thefossil plants of which the chief are Taeniopteris daintreei and Thinnfeldiaodontopteroides are regarded by Seward as Lower Jurassic.At Talbragar there is a bed containing jurassic fish, which rests in anerosion hollow in the Hawkesbury Sandstone. The Talbragar beds,then, may be representative of the Jurassic; and the underlyingHawkesbury Sandstone may be Upper Triassic. The Cretaceoussystem is widely developed in the western part of the state, where itis represented by two divisions. The Rolling Downs formation isregarded as Lower Cretaceous. It consists of a thick series of shalescontaining marine fossils. It is covered in places by tablelands andridges of the Desert Sandstone, the remnants of a sheet whichdoubtless once covered the whole of the Western Plains. The chiefeconomic product of the Desert Sandstone is opal, which occurs in itat White Cliffs and Wilcannia. The opal beds contain Cretaceousfossils such as Cimoliosaurus. An occurrence of Upper Cretaceousbeds occurs in the coastal district at Nimbin on the Richmond river.The Cainozoic rocks are best developed in the western districts, asthe silts of the Darling and Murray plains. They include someMiocene, or perhaps Oligocene marine sands, formed in the northernpart of an inland sea, which occupied the basin of the Lower Murray.The most significant point in the distribution of the marine Cainozoicrocks in New South Wales is their complete absence from the coastaldistricts; this fact indicates that while the Middle Cainozoic marinebeds of Victoria and New Guinea were being deposited, Australiaextended far eastward into the Tasman Sea. The Cainozoic series ofNew South Wales contains many interesting volcanic rocks, includingleucite-basalts, nepheline-basalts and sodalite-basalts. In a basicneck of this period at Inverell, there are eclogite boulders, containingdiamonds in situ; and it is doubtless from these basic volcanic necksthat the diamonds of the New England tableland have been derived.The volcanic rocks occur on the tableland of New South Wales, andcontribute much to the fertility of their soils.

The most important mineral in New South Wales is coal, of whichthe state has probably a larger available supply than any othercountry in the southern hemisphere. The coal-fields occupy 24,000sq. m. The coal is present in such vast amount as to offer thepossibility of very economical working of the abundant iron ores ofAustralia. Kerosene shale occurs in the Blue Mountains to the westof Sydney, in the Upper Carboniferous rocks. Gold is widelydistributed through the highlands. It was first recorded by JamesMcBrien in 1823, as occurring in grains in the sands of the Fish river,between Rydal and Bathurst; and though further discoveries weremade, they were kept secret as far as possible. The first discoveryof gold in mining quantities was made by Hargraves in 1851, at thejunction of Lewis Ponds and Summerhill Creek, in what was called theOphir Diggings, near Bathurst. The gold mines are very numerousand widely scattered, but individually they are mostly small and ofno great depth. The total value of the gold raised since 1850 is over£50,000,000. The output of alluvial gold is now increased by theemployment of dredges. The gold-quartz veins are mainly in theOrdovician and Silurian rocks; but some also occur in the Devonian,and there are impregnations of gold in tufas of Devonian age. Deepleads beneath the basalts occur at Kiandra.

The silver-lead mines of New South Wales are famous owing to theimportance of Broken Hill. The mines there occur in gneiss andschists, which are probably of Archean age; the lode has in placesbeen worked for a width of over 200 ft. The zinc ores associatedwith the silver-lead long lay unutilized, as the problem of theirseparation from the associated rhodonite has only recently beenovercome. Tin is worked in the rivers of the New England tablelandas at Vegetable Creek. The chief copper field is at Cobar in thenorth-western plains. Bismuth, platinum, molybdenum and antimonyare obtained in small quantities.

The geology of New South Wales has been described in the Monographs,Memoirs and Records of the Geological Survey, which in thefullness and high scientific character form the most valuable contributionto Australasian geology. Pittman’s map of the state in twosheets, on the scale of 16 m. to the inch, was issued by the Survey in1893. The economic geology has been admirably summarized in awork by E. F. Pittman, The Mineral Resources of New South Wales(1901). Numerous geological memoirs have appeared in the Rep.Austral. Assoc. for the Advancement of Science, the Journ. R. Soc.N.S. Wales and the Proc. of the Linnaean Soc. N.S. Wales. Asystematic account of the minerals has been published by A.Liversidge, The Minerals of New South Wales (1888), and to him isdue a valuable chemical study of the meteorites and gold nuggets.Contributions on the palaeontology of New South Wales are containedin the Rec. Austral. Museum, Sydney. A bibliography of theeconomic geography has been issued by W. S. Dun, Rec. Geol. Surv.N.S. Wales, vol. vi., 1899, and of the Cretaceous geology, also byW. S. Dun, in Journ. of Proc. Royal Soc. N.S. Wales, 1903, vol. xxxvii.pp. 140–153.  (J. W. G.) 

Artesian Water.—Before actual boring proved that the belief waswell founded, it had long been scientifically demonstrated that waterwould probably be obtained in the Cretaceous formation whichunderlies the whole of the north-west of New South Wales; and it isprobable that the artesian water-bearing basin extends muchfarther south than was previously supposed. It may, indeed, be yetfound to extend approximately along the course of the LowerDarling. Artesian water is also obtainable in other than Cretaceousrocks. This is shown by palaeontological evidence; and some of themost successful bores, such as those at Coonamble, Moree, Gil Giland Euroka, have pierced rocks of Triassic age, corresponding withthe Ipswich Coal Measures.

Population.—The population on the 1st of July 1906 was1,504,700, viz. 799,260 males and 705,440 females. The totalincludes 105,000 Chinese and 7500 aborigines and half-castes.Since 1860 New South Wales had added more largely to itspopulation than any of the other Australian states. In 1860the population was 348,546; in 1890 the number was 1,121,860.From 1890 to 1901 the population increased 238,083, or at therate of 21·2%. By far the largest part of the increase is dueto excess of births over deaths, for out of the increase of over1,000,000 since 1860, only 350,000 was due to immigration. In1905 there were 39,572 births and 14,980 deaths; these figuresare equal to 26·78 and 10·13 per thousand respectively. Thebirth-rate has fallen very much, especially since 1899. In 1861–1865it was 42·71 per 1000; in 1896–1899 it was 27·92, and in1906 it had fallen still further to 26·78. The marriage rate for1905 was 7·40 per thousand, and the persons married 14·80per thousand. The mean for 20 years was 7·39. The chief,cities are Sydney and suburbs, population in 1906, 535,000;Newcastle and suburbs, 56,000; Broken Hill, 30,000; in 1901,Parramatta, 12,568; Goulburn, 10,610; and Maitland (Eastand West), 10,085. There are nine other towns with between5000 and 10,000 inhabitants each.

Administration.—The political constitution of New SouthWales is that of a self-governing British colony, and rests on theprovisions of the Constitution Act. The governor is appointedby the crown, the term of office being generally for five years,and the salary £5000. The governor is the official medium ofcommunication between the colonial government and thesecretary for the colonies, but at the same time the colonymaintains its own agent-general in London, who not only sees toall its commercial business but communicates with the colonialoffice. The powers of the state parliament have been since1901 restricted by the transfer of certain powers to the commonwealthof Australia. In the legislative assembly there are 90members. The principle adopted in distributing the representationis that of equal electoral districts, modified in practice by apreference given to the distant and rural constituencies at thecost of the metropolitan electorates. The suffrage qualificationis a residence of twelve months and the attainment of the ageof 21 years. Women are entitled to the franchise: there arethe usual restrictions in regard to the pauper and criminalclasses. An elector has only one vote, which is attached to thedistrict in which he resides. Members of the Legislative Assemblyare allowed a salary of £300 a year. There were in 1906 about700,000 electors. Each electoral district returns one member.The Legislative Council consists of persons nominated for lifeby the governor, acting on the advice of the Executive Council;the number of members is not fixed by law but in 1906 it was 55.Parliaments are triennial. Local government was extended in1905 and 1906 to the whole state, excepting the sparsely populatedwestern division; formerly it was confined to an area ofabout 2800 sq. m. There are altogether about 55,000 m. ofroad communications, but not more than 15,000 m. are properlyformed. The various local bodies are municipalities or shires,the former is the term applied to closely peopled areas of smallextent endowed with complete local government, and the latteris the designation of the more extensive districts, thinly peopled,to which a less complete system of local government has beengranted.

Federal Capital.—In 1908 the Seat of Government Act providedthat the federal territory and capital of Australia shouldbe in the Yass-Canberra district of New South Wales, and thatthe territory should have an area of not less than 900 sq. m. andeasy access to the sea. In 1909 a Board appointed to considerthe several possible sites within this district reported in favourof Canberra, on the Molonglo river, near Queanbeyan, as thesite for the new city, and the basins of the Molonglo, Queanbeyanand Cotter rivers were indicated as suitable to form the federalterritory. Jervis Bay was recommended as offering a site for aport for the territory. Bills were passed in 1909 by the legislativeassembly of New South Wales and by the federal parliament,transferring this territory to the federation.

New South Wales was discovered by Captain Cook on boardthe “Endeavour,” on 20th April 1770. After he had observedthe transit of Venus at Tahiti, he circumnavigatedNew Zealand and went in search of the eastern coastof the great continent whose western shores had longbeen known to the Dutch. He sighted the Australian coast atEarly history. ​Gippsland, Victoria, near Cape Everard, which he named PointHicks, and sailed along the east coast of Australia as far northas Botany Bay, where he landed, and claimed possession of thecontinent on behalf of King George III. He then continued hisvoyage along the east coast of Australia, and returned to Englandby way of Torres Strait and the Indian Ocean. The favourablereports made by Captain Cook of the country around BotanyBay induced the British government to found a penal settlementon the south-eastern part of what was then known as NewHolland. An expedition, consisting of H.M.S. “Sirius” of 20guns, the armed trader “Supply,” three store-ships and sixtransports, left England on 17th May 1787, and after touching atTenerife, Rio de Janeiro, and the Cape of Good Hope, arrived atBotany Bay on the 20th of January 1788, under the command ofCaptain Arthur Phillip, R.N., with Captain John Hunter, R.N.,as second. The persons on board the fleet included 564 maleand 192, female convicts, and a detachment of marines, consistingof Major Ross, commandant, 16 officers, 24 non-commissionedofficers, an adjutant and quartermaster, 160 privates and 40women. There were in addition five medical men and a fewmechanics. The live stock consisted of one bull and four cows,a stallion and three mares, some sheep, goats, pigs and a largenumber of fowls. The expedition was well provided with' seedsof all descriptions.

The shores of Botany Bay were found to be unsuitable forresidence or cultivation, and Captain Phillip transferred thepeople under his command to Port Jackson, half adozen miles away, near the site of the present city ofSydney. For some years the history of the infantsettlement was that of a large gaol; the attemptsPenal settlement regime.made to till the soil at Farm Cove near Sydney and near Parramattawere only partially successful, and upon several occasionsthe residents of the encampment suffered much privation. Butby degrees the difficulties inseparable from the foundation of aremote colony were surmounted, several additional convict-shipslanded their living freight on the shores of Port Jackson,and in 1793 an emigrant-ship arrived with free settlers, whowere furnished with provisions and presented with free grantsof land. By the end of the 18th century the inhabitants of Sydneyand its neighbourhood numbered 5000. Immediately after thearrival of the first fleet, surveys of the adjacent coast were made;the existence of a strait between Australia and Tasmania wasdiscovered by Surgeon Bass; and before the retirement ofGovernor King in 1806 Australia had been circumnavigatedand the principal features of its coast-line accurately surveyedby Captain Flinders, R.N. The explorations landward were,however, not so successful, and for many years the Blue Mountains,which rise a few miles back from Sydney, formed an impenetrablebarrier to the progress of colonization. Penalestablishments were formed at Newcastle in New South Wales,at Hobart and Launceston in Tasmania, and an unsuccessfulattempt was made to colonize Port Phillip. The most noteworthyincident in the first decade of the 19th century was theforcible deportation by the officers of the New South WalesCorps, a regiment raised in England for service in the colony, ofthe governor, Captain Bligh, R.N., the naval officer identifiedwith the mutiny of the “Bounty.” For some time the governmentwas administered by the senior officer of the New SouthWales Corps, but in 1809 he was succeeded by CaptainMacquarie, who retained the governorship for eleven years.

During the régime of this able administrator New South Waleswas transformed from a penal settlement to a colony. Beforethe arrival of Macquarie schools and churches hadbeen erected, a newspaper, the Sydney Gazette andNew South Wales Advertiser, had been started, andattempts had been made to acclimatize the drama.Captain Macquarie’s governorship.But he was the first governor to open up the country.He constructed permanent buildings at Sydney and Parramatta,formed roads and built bridges in the districts along the coast,and commenced a track across the Blue Mountains, which hadbeen crossed in 1813 by Wentworth and others, thus openingup the rich interior to the inhabitants of Sydney. It was duringCaptain Macquarie’s administration that the first banking institution,the Bank of New South Wales, was founded. Thefinal fall of Napoleon in 1815 gave the people of the UnitedKingdom leisure to think about their possessions at the Antipodes;and in 1817 free settlers commenced to arrive in considerablenumbers, attracted by the success of Captain JohnM‘Arthur, an officer in the New South Wales Regiment, whohad demonstrated that the soil, grass and climate were welladapted for the growth of merino wool. But although thefree settlers prospered, and were enabled to purchase land onvery easy terms, they were dissatisfied with the administrationof justice, which was in the hands of a judge-advocate assistedby military officers, and with the absence of a free press andrepresentative institutions. They also demanded permissionto occupy the vast plains of the interior, without having toobtain by purchase or by grant the fee-simple of the lands uponwhich their sheep and cattle grazed. These demands wereurged during the governorships of Sir Thomas Brisbane andGeneral Darling; but they were not finally conceded, togetherwith perfect religious equality, until the regime of Sir RichardBourke, which lasted from 1831 to 1837. At the1831 to 1851.latter date the population had increased to 76,793,of whom 25,254 males and 2557 females were or hadbeen convicts. Settlement had progressed at a rapid rate.Parramatta, Richmond and Windsor had indeed been foundedwithin the first decade of the colony’s existence; Newcastle,Maitland and Morpeth, near the coast to the north of Sydney,had been begun during the earlier years of the 19th century;but the towns of the interior, Goulburn, Bathurst and others,were not commenced till about 1835, in which year the site ofMelbourne was first occupied by Batman and Fawkner. Theexplorations which followed the passage of the Blue Mountainsopened up a large portion of south-eastern Australia. VanDiemen’s Land was declared a separate colony in 1825, WestAustralia in 1829, South Australia in 1836 and New Zealandin 1839; so that before 1840 the original area of New SouthWales, which at first included the mainland of Australia andthe islands in the South Pacific, had been greatly reduced. In1840 the press was free in every part of Australia, trial by juryhad been introduced, and every colony possessed a legislature,although in none of them except New South Wales had theprinciple of representation been introduced, and in that colonyonly to a very limited extent. The policy of granting landwithout payment, originally in force in New South Wales, hadbeen abandoned in favour of sales of the public lands by auctionat the upset price of twenty shillings per acre; and the systemof squatting licences, under which colonists were allowed tooccupy the waste lands on payment of a small annual licence,had been conceded. In 1851, when separate autonomy wasgranted to Victoria, New South Wales had a population of187,243, the annual imports were £2,078,338, the exports£2,399,580, the revenue was £S75,794, and the colony contained132,437 horses, 1,738,965 cattle and 13,059,324 sheep.

Gold was discovered at Summerhill Creek, near Bathurst,in February 1851, by Edward Hammond Hargraves; and atthe end of June the first shipment, valued at £3500, left Sydney.This discovery made an important change in the position of thecolony, and transportation, which had been discontinued duringthe previous year, was finally abolished. The first mail steamerarrived in August 1852, and in 1853 a branch of the RoyalMint was established at Sydney. The New Constitution Bill,passed during the same year by the local legislature, providedfor two deliberative chambers, the assembly to be elected andthe council nominated, and for the responsibility of the executiveto the legislature. The Sydney University, founded in1850, was enlarged in 1854, and the first railway inResponsible government. 1856.New South Wales, from Sydney to Parramatta, commencedin 1850, was opened in 1855. In the samethe Imperial parliament passed the New ConstitutionAct; and in June 1856 the first responsiblegovernment in Australia was formed, during the governorshipof Sir William Denison, by Mr Stuart Alexander Donaldson. ​The first administration lasted only for a few weeks, andit was some years before constitutional government workedsmoothly. The powers of the new parliament were utilizedfor extending representative institutions. Vote by ballot wasintroduced; the number of members in the assembly wasincreased to 80, and the franchise was granted to every adultmale after six months’ residence in any electoral area. Meanwhilethe material progress, of the colony was unchecked. Acensus taken at the end of 1857 showed that the populationof Sydney was, including the suburbs, 81,327. Telegraphiccommunication was established between Sydney, Melbourne,Adelaide and Tasmania in 1859; and during the same yearthe Moreton Bay district was separated from New South Walesand was constituted the colony of Queensland.

During the regime of Sir John Young, afterwards Lord Lisgar,who succeeded Sir William Denison in 1861, several importantevents occurred. The land policy of previous governmentswas entirely revised, and the Land Bill, framedby Sir John Robertson, introduced the principle ofdeferred payments for the purchase of crown lands,Sir John Young’s governorship.and made residence and cultivation, rather than a sufficientprice, the object to be sought by the crown in alienating thepublic estate. This measure, passed with great difficulty andby bringing considerable pressure to bear upon the nominatedcouncil, was the outcome of a lengthened agitation throughoutthe Australian colonies, and was followed by similar legislationin all of them. It was during the governorship of Sir JohnYoung that the distinction between the descendants of convictsand the descendants of free settlers, hitherto maintained withgreat strictness, was finally abandoned. In 1862 the agitationagainst the Chinese assumed importance, and the attitude ofthe miners at Lambing Flat was so threatening that a largeforce, military and police, was despatched to that goldfield inorder to protect the Chinamen from ill-treatment by the miners.At this time, the only drawback to the general progress andprosperity of the country was the recrudescence of bushranging,or robbery under arms, in the country districts. This crime,originally confined to runaway convicts, was now committedby young men born in the colony, familiar with its mountainsand forests, who were good horsemen and excellent shots. Itwas not until a large number of lives had been sacrificed, andmany bushrangers brought to the scaffold, that the offence wasthoroughly stamped out in New South Wales, only to reappearsome years afterwards in Victoria under somewhat similarconditions.

The earl of Belmore became governor in 1868, and it wasduring his first year of office that H.R.H. the duke of Edinburghvisited the colony in command of the “Galatea.” An attemptmade upon his life, during a picnic at Clontarf, caused greatexcitement throughout Australia, and his assailant, a man namedO’Farrell, was hanged. A measure which virtually madeprimary education free, compulsory and unsectarian came intooperation. A census taken in 1871 showed that the populationwas 503,981; the revenue, £2,908,155; the expenditure,£3,006,576; the imports, £9,609,508; and the exports,£11,245,032. Sir Hercules Robinson, afterwards Lord Rosmead,was sworn in as governor in 1872. During his rule, which lastedtill 1879, the Fiji Islands were annexed; telegraphic communicationwith England and mail communication with the UnitedStates were established; and the long series of political struggles,which prevented any administration from remaining in officelong enough to develop its policy, was brought to an end by acoalition between Sir Henry Parkes and Sir John Robertson.Lord Augustus Loftus became governor in 1879, in time toinaugurate the first International Exhibition ever held inAustralia. The census taken during the following year gave thepopulation of the colony as 751,468, of whom 411,149 weremales and 340,319 females. The railway to Melbourne was completedin 1880; and in 1883 valuable deposits of silver werediscovered at Broken Hill. In 1885 the Hon. W. B. Dalley, whowas acting Premier during the absence through ill-health ofSir Alexander Stuart, made to the British government the offerof a contingent of the armed forces of New South Wales to aid theImperial troops in the Sudan. The offer was accepted; thecontingent left Sydney in March 1885, on board the“Iberia” and “Australasian,” and for the first timea British colony sent its armed forces outside its ownSudan contingent 1855.boundaries to fight on behalf of the mother-country.In July of the same year Dr Moran, the Roman Catholic archbishopof Sydney, became the first Australasian cardinal. LordCarrington, who was appointed governor in 1888, opened therailway to Queensland, and during the same year the centenaryof the colony was celebrated. The agitation against the Chinese,always more or less existent, became intense, and the governmentforcibly prevented the Chinese passengers of four shipsfrom landing, and passed laws which practically prohibit theimmigration of Chinese.

In 1889 the premier, Sir Henry Parkes, gave in his adhesion tothe movement for Australasian federation, and New South Waleswas represented at the first conference held at Melbourne in thebeginning of 1890. Lord Jersey assumed office on the 15th ofJanuary 1891, and a few weeks afterwards the conference toconsider the question of federating the Australian colonies washeld at Sydney, and the great strike, which at one time hadthreatened to paralyse the trade of the colony, came to an end.A board of arbitration and conciliation to hear and determinelabour questions and disputes was formed, and by later legislationits powers have been strengthened. (For the labourlegislation of the state, see Australia.) A census taken on the5th of April 1891 showed that the population was 1,134,207,of whom the aborigines numbered 7705 and the Chinese 12,781.In 1893 a financial crisis resulted in the suspension of ten banks;but with two exceptions they were reconstructed, and by thefollowing year the effects of the depression had passed away.Federation was not so popular in New South Wales as in theneighbouring colonies, and no progress was made between 1891and 1894, although Sir Henry Parkes, who was at that timein opposition, brought the question before the legislature. TheRt. Hon. Sir William Duff, who followed Lord Jersey as governor,died at Sydney in 1895, and was succeeded by Lord Hampden. In1896 a conference of Australian premiers was held at Sydney toconsider the question of federation. The then Premier, Mr Reid,was rather lukewarm, as he considered that the free-trade policyof New South Wales would be overridden by itsprotectionist neighbours and its metropolitan positionAttitude towards federation.interfered with. But his hand was to a great extentforced by a People’s Federation Convention held atBathurst, and in the early portion of 1897 delegates from NewSouth Wales met those from all the other colonies, exceptQueensland, at Adelaide, and drafted the constitution, whichwith some few modifications eventually became law. Thevisit of the Australian premiers to England on the occasion ofQueen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee gave an additional impetusto federation, and in September 1897 the convention reassembledin Sydney and discussed the modifications in the constitutionwhich had been suggested in the local parliaments. In January1898 the bill was finally agreed to and submitted to a popularreferendum of the inhabitants of each colony. Those of Victoria,South Australia and Tasmania agreed to the measure; butthe majority in New South Wales, 5458, was not sufficient tocarry the bill. The local parliament subsequently suggestedcertain amendments, one of them being that Sydney should bethe federal capital. The general election returned a majoritypledged to federation, and after some opposition to the federalBill by the legislative council it was again referred to theelectors of the colony and agreed to by them, 107,420 votes beingrecorded in its favour, and 82,741 against it. One of the provisionsof the bill as finally carried was that the federal metropolis,although in New South Wales, should be more than 100 m. fromSydney. The Enabling Bill passed through all its stages in theBritish parliament during the summer of 1900, all the Australiancolonies assenting to its provisions; and on the 1st of January1901 Lord Hopetoun, the governor-general of Australia, and thefederal ministry, of which the premier, Mr Barton, and Sir ​William Lyne, Home Secretary, represented New South Wales,were sworn in at Sydney amidst great rejoicings. Large contingentsof troops from New South Wales were sent to SouthAfrica during 1899 and 1900.  (G. C. L.)