|
|
 
Stretching over 802,000 square kilometres
and boasting a population of more than 6 million, New
South Wales is the site of the first original landing in
Australia, and the place where the first permanent
settlement was established. With Sydney as the capital
city, and the nations largest,
New South Wales is well known for it’s
beautiful Harbour, along with the Opera House and the
Sydney Harbour Bridge.
It will also be the city to host the up and
coming 2000 Olympic Games. Sydney holds some of the most
attractive inner city residential areas in the world,
and the Pacific shoreline is dotted with world famous
beaches like Bondi and Manly. Furthermore, Sydney’s
northern beaches region is a popular residential area
with stunning coastal scenery and great surf beaches.
The state basically divides neatly into four regions.
The narrow coastal strip runs from Queensland to
Victoria with many beaches, national parks, inlets and
coastal lakes. There
are handfuls of coastal resorts scattered the whole
length of the coast that all have unspoiled stretches of
beaches, some protected as national parks. The Great
Dividing Range, located in the hinterland, runs behind
the coast and includes the spectacular ranges of the New
England tablelands and the Hunter Valley wine growing
district north of Sydney. Some of Australia’s most
spectacular scenery lie in Blue Mountains behind Sydney,
and in the south of the state, the southern highlands
climb up to the height of the Snowy Mountains.
Inland from the Great Dividing Range, the farming
country of the western slopes fades into the hot, harsh
western plains which cover two-thirds of the state and
produces the great Australian outback in the far west.
|
|