About Australia - Overview

On 1 January 1901 the individual British colonies joined together to form the Commonwealth of Australia, which consists of six states (New South Wales; Queensland; South Australia; Tasmania; Victoria and Western Australia) and two territories (Australian Capital Territory where Canberra is situated and the Northern Territory).

State governments are modelled on the British Westminster system. Each state has a premier who is the leader of the political party in power. All states have an executive council consisting of the governor, state premier and selected ministers,

State parliaments deal with domestic affairs such as education, transport, law enforcement, health services and agriculture, as well as sharing mutual responsibilities with the federal parliament.

Despite accounting for approx. 25% of the Asia Pacific region's landmass, Australia represents only one half of one percent of the area's population. Migration of over 5.8 million immigrants since 1945 has greatly assisted to swell the country's total population to about 20 million.

Australians are one of the world's most urbanised societies (nearly all of the population live in urban areas along the coast). The most populous city is Sydney (4 million); followed by Melbourne (3.5 million), Brisbane (1.6 million); Perth (1.3 million); Adelaide (1.1 million); Hobart (195,000) and Darwin (87,000).