Portal:New South Wales

Central Area Command was one of several geographically based commands raised by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II. It was formed in March 1940, and covered the central portion of New South Wales. Headquartered at Sydney, Central Area Command was responsible for air defence, aerial reconnaissance and protection of the sea lanes within its boundaries. It was disbanded in August 1941 and control of its units taken over by other RAAF formations. Proposals in 1943–44 to raise a new Central Area Command did not come to fruition. (Full article...)

The Sydney punchbowls, made in China during the Jiaqing Emperor's reign (1796–1820) over the mid-Qing dynasty, are the only two known examples of Chinese export porcelain hand painted with Sydney scenes and dating from the Macquarie era. The bowls were procured in Canton about three decades after the First Fleet's arrival at Port Jackson where the British settlement at Sydney Cove was established in 1788. They also represent the trading between Australia and China via India at the time. Decorated punchbowls were prestigious items used for drinking punch at social gatherings during the 18th and 19th centuries, but it is not known who commissioned these bowls or what occasion they were made for.

The punchbowls are a 'harlequin pair', similar but not exactly matching. They were donated independently of each other, one to the State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) in 1926 and the other to the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) in 2006. The Library bowl is the more widely known of the pair. Its earliest provenance places it in England in the late 1840s, where it is said to have been commissioned for William Bligh; another source suggests Henry Colden Antill. It passed through several owners in Britain before it was presented to the State Library. The Museum bowl's first provenance is from England in 1932 and it has been suggested that it was made to the order of Arthur Phillip. Its whereabouts were unknown until it appeared in the Newark Museum, United States, in 1988, on loan from Peter Frelinghuysen Jr. Through donations, the Maritime Museum later acquired the punchbowl from Frelinghuysen. (Full article...)

Steven Peter Devereux Smith (born 2 June 1989) is an Australian international cricketer, former captain of the Australian national team in all three formats of the game and since 2021, the vice-captain of the Australian Test team. He is regarded as the best Test batsman of his generation, scoring over 10,000 Test runs, having reached an ICC Test batting rating of 947, the second-highest figure of all time, only behind Don Bradman's 961 and was named ICC Men's Test Player of the Decade for 2011–2020.

Although he was initially selected for Australia as a leg-spinning all-rounder in all formats in 2010, Smith was always earmarked as a batting prospect following successful batting campaigns in domestic cricket early in his career. After playing five Test matches from 2010 to 2011 as a bowling all-rounder, he was recalled to the Australian Test team in 2013 as a batsman and took over the captaincy from Michael Clarke in late 2015. Smith now plays primarily as a batsman, and has predominantly batted at number 4 in Test cricket and number 3 in ODIs and T20Is. (Full article...)

St James' Church, commonly known as St James', King Street, is an Australian heritage-listed Anglican parish church located at 173 King Street, in the Sydney central business district in New South Wales. Consecrated in February 1824 and named in honour of St James the Great, it became a parish church in 1835. Designed in the style of a Georgian town church by the transported convict architect Francis Greenway during the governorship of Lachlan Macquarie, St James' is part of the historical precinct of Macquarie Street which includes other early colonial era buildings such as the World Heritage listed Hyde Park Barracks.

The church remains historically, socially and architecturally significant. The building is the oldest church extant in Sydney's inner city region. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 3 September 2004; and was listed on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate. (Full article...)

Sidney George Barnes (5 June 1916 – 16 December 1973) was an Australian cricketer and cricket writer, who played 13 Test matches between 1938 and 1948. Able to open the innings or bat down the order, Barnes was regarded as one of Australia's finest batsmen in the period immediately following World War II. He helped create an enduring record when scoring 234 in the second Test against England at Sydney in December 1946; exactly the same score as his captain, Don Bradman, in the process setting a world-record 405-run fifth wicket partnership. Barnes averaged 63.05 over 19 innings in a career that, like those of most of his contemporaries, was interrupted by World War II.

He made his first-class debut at the end of the 1936–37 season when selected for New South Wales, and he was later included in the team for the 1938 Australian tour of England, making his Test debut in the final international of the series. On the resumption of Test cricket after the war, he was picked as the opening partner to Arthur Morris. Barnes was a member of The Invincibles, the 1948 Australian team that toured England without losing a single match. Retiring from cricket at the end of that tour, Barnes attempted a comeback to Test cricket in the 1951–52 season that was ultimately and controversially unsuccessful. (Full article...)

The Governor's Body Guard of Light Horse was a military unit maintained in the Colony of New South Wales between 1801 and 1834, and reputedly the "first full-time military unit raised in Australia". It was established by Governor Philip Gidley King by drawing men from the New South Wales Corps, the British garrison in the colony. Normally consisting of one or two non-commissioned officers and six privates, the Guard provided an escort to the governor and carried his despatches to outposts across the colony. From 1802, the men of the Guard were drawn from convicts pardoned by King. Men from the unit were deployed during the Castle Hill convict rebellion of 1804 and a trooper of the Guard assisted in the capture of two of the rebel leaders.

After King was succeeded by William Bligh in 1806, the Guard reverted to being drawn from the New South Wales Corps. The unit seems to have been absent during the Corps' 1808 mutiny against Bligh and, by one report, supported it. It was ordered to disband by the Earl of Liverpool but was granted a reprieve in 1812 by Liverpool's successor Earl Bathurst. Viscount Goderich ordered disbandment again in 1832 and Governor Richard Bourke transformed the unit into the Mounted Orderlies in 1834. These were absorbed into the New South Wales Mounted Police in 1836 and continued as a separate component within that force until at least 1860. (Full article...)

Charles Hercules Green DSO (26 December 1919 – 1 November 1950) was an Australian military officer who was the youngest Australian Army infantry battalion commander during World War II. He went on to command the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3 RAR), during the Korean War, where he died of wounds. He remains the only commanding officer of a Royal Australian Regiment battalion to die on active service. Green joined the part-time Militia in 1936, and before the outbreak of World War II had been commissioned as a lieutenant. He volunteered for overseas service soon after the war began in September 1939, and served in the Middle East and the Battle of Greece with the 2/2nd Battalion. After the action at Pineios Gorge on 18 April 1941, Green became separated from the main body of the battalion, and made his way through Turkey to Palestine, to rejoin the reformed 2/2nd Battalion. The 2/2nd Battalion returned to Australia in August 1942 via Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), to meet the threat posed by the Japanese.

Green performed instructional duties and attended courses until July 1943 when he rejoined the 2/2nd Battalion as its second-in-command. At the time, the unit was training in Queensland. From March to July 1945, Green commanded the 2/11th Battalion during the Aitape-Wewak campaign in New Guinea. For his performance during the campaign, Green was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order. After the war, Green briefly returned to civilian life and part-time military service as commanding officer of the 41st Battalion. When the Regular Army was formed, Green returned to full-time service in early 1949. (Full article...)

Abbotsford Bridge is a steel Allan truss-type road bridge that carries the Silver City Highway across the Murray River, between Curlwaa in New South Wales, and Yelta in Victoria, Australia. It is the only remaining steel truss bridge with a lift span that crosses the Murray. Opened in 1928, the bridge was built by the NSW Department of Public Works and was designed by Percy Allan. It was the second last vertical-lift bridge to be built over the river, the last being the Nyah Bridge, which opened in 1941.

The bridge was constructed over a three-year period from 1925. The project was not originally planned to take as long, but there were delays due to problems with a contractor, and industrial action. The bridge was designed to carry the Mildura railway line over the Murray River and into New South Wales, to service significant cross-border traffic arising from the fruit-growing industry, but the line was never extended beyond the terminus at Yelta. The bridge currently carries a single lane of road controlled by traffic lights. (Full article...)

Bronwyn Bancroft AM (born 1958) is an Aboriginal Australian artist, administrator, book illustrator, and among the first three Australian fashion designers to show their work in Paris. She was born in Tenterfield, New South Wales, and trained in Canberra and Sydney.

In 1985, Bancroft established a shop called Designer Aboriginals, selling fabrics made by Aboriginal artists, including herself. She was a founding member of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative. Her artwork is held by the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Art Gallery of Western Australia. She illustrated and written 47 ;children's books, including Stradbroke Dreamtime by activist Oodgeroo Noonuccal, and books by artist Sally Morgan. Her design commissions include one for the exterior of a Sydney sports centre. (Full article...)

The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae. Its closest living relatives are the wombats. The koala is found in coastal areas of the continent's eastern and southern regions, inhabiting Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. It is easily recognisable by its stout, tailless body and large head with round, fluffy ears and large, dark nose. The koala has a body length of 60–85 cm (24–33 in) and weighs 4–15 kg (8.8–33.1 lb). Its fur colour ranges from silver grey to chocolate brown. Koalas from the northern populations are typically smaller and lighter in colour than their counterparts further south. These populations are possibly separate subspecies, but not all researchers accept this.

Koalas typically inhabit open Eucalyptus woodland, as the leaves of these trees make up most of their diet. This eucalypt diet has low nutritional and caloric content and contains toxic compounds that deter most other mammals from feeding on them. Koalas are largely sedentary and sleep up to twenty hours a day. They are asocial; only mothers bond to dependent offspring. Adult males communicate with bellows that intimidate rivals and attract mates. Males mark their presence with secretions from scent glands located on their chests. Like other marsupials, koalas give birth to young known as joeys at a very early stage of development. They crawl into their mothers' pouches, where they live for their first six to seven months. They are fully weaned around a year old. (Full article...)

The 1994 FIFA World Cup CONCACAF–OFC qualification play-off was an association football match played over two legs between Australia and Canada. The first leg was played at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Canada, on 31 July 1993; the second leg was played on 15 August 1993 at Sydney Football Stadium in Sydney, Australia.

Both teams had played in their regional qualifiers to qualify for the play-off. The Canadians played in twelve matches in North American qualifying across two rounds. After finishing second in their second-round group to El Salvador, they qualified to the final round where they finished second by three points to Mexico. Australia played in six matches across two rounds in Oceania qualifying. After winning their group, they defeated New Zealand across two legs to make it to the play-off. (Full article...)

Ernest Raymond Herbert Toshack (8 December 1914 – 11 May 2003) was an Australian cricketer who played in 12 Tests from 1946 to 1948. A left arm medium paced bowler known for his accuracy and stamina in the application of leg theory, Toshack was a member of Don Bradman's "Invincibles" that toured England in 1948 without being defeated. Toshack reinforced the Australian new ball attack of Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller.

Born in 1914, Toshack overcame many obstacles to reach international level cricket. He was orphaned as an infant, and his early cricket career was hindered because of financial difficulties caused by the Great Depression. The Second World War prevented Toshack from competing at first-class level until he was into his thirties. In 1945–46, the first season of cricket after the end of the War, Toshack made his debut at first-class level and after only seven matches in the Sheffield Shield he was selected for Australia's tour of New Zealand. In Wellington, he opened the bowling in a match that was retrospectively classed as an official Test match. Toshack became a regular member of the Australian team, playing in all of its Tests until the 1947–48 series against India. He took his career-best match bowling figures of 11 wickets for 31 runs (11/31) in the First Test but began to suffer recurring knee injuries, and a medical board had to approve his selection for the 1948 England tour. Toshack played in the first four Tests before being injured. After a long convalescence, he attempted a comeback during Australia's 1949–50 season, but further injury forced him to retire. He was a parsimonious bowler, who was popular with crowds for his sense of humour. (Full article...)

James Thomas Walker (20 March 1841 – 18 January 1923) was an Australian banker and politician. He served as a Senator for New South Wales from 1901 to 1913.

Walker was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He spent his early childhood in New South Wales, before returning to Scotland with his family to study finance. Joining the Bank of New South Wales, he returned to Australia and held various financial positions in New South Wales and Queensland. Gaining a public reputation for financial expertise, he was active in the Federationist cause and was a delegate to the 1897 Constitutional Convention, where he was a significant figure in the development of Commonwealth finance schemes. After assisting the successful "Yes" campaign for the 1898 referendum, he was elected to the Senate in 1901 as a Free Trader. (Full article...)

The Riverina (/ˌrɪvəˈriːnə/)
is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, a climate with significant seasonal variation and an ample supply of water for irrigation. This combination has allowed the Riverina to develop into one of the most productive and agriculturally diverse areas of Australia. Bordered on the south by the state of Victoria and on the east by the Great Dividing Range, the Riverina covers those areas of New South Wales in the Murray and Murrumbidgee drainage zones to their confluence in the west.

Home to Aboriginal groups including the Wiradjuri people for over 40,000 years, the Riverina was colonised by Europeans in the mid-19th century as a pastoral region providing beef and wool to markets in Australia and beyond. In the 20th century, the development of major irrigation areas in the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys has led to the introduction of crops such as rice and wine grapes. The Riverina has strong cultural ties to Victoria, and the region was the source of much of the impetus behind the federation of Australian colonies. (Full article...)

St John the Baptist Anglican Church is an active Anglican church located between Alt and Bland Streets, Ashfield, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1840, on land donated by Elizabeth Underwood, the church building is the oldest authenticated surviving building in Ashfield, having been built at the time when subdivision increased the population density sufficiently to turn Ashfield into a town. It was also the first church built along the Parramatta Road which linked the early colonial towns of Sydney and Parramatta. The earliest remaining parts of the building are one of the first Sydney designs by the colonial architect Edmund Blacket, who later became renowned for his ecclesiastical architecture.

The expansive church grounds contain a cemetery dating back to 1845 that contains the remains of many notable Ashfield residents. Australia's only memorial to Australian Air Force Cadets occupies a prominent position near the entrance to the church. The St John's site has been listed on the Local Environment Plan Heritage Schedule, and the Register of the National Trust of Australia. (Full article...)

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings, and a masterpiece of 20th-century architecture.

Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon and completed by an Australian architectural team headed by Peter Hall, the building was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973, 16 years after Utzon's 1957 selection as winner of an international design competition. The Government of New South Wales, led by the premier, Joseph Cahill, authorised work to begin in 1958 with Utzon directing construction. The government's decision to build Utzon's design is often overshadowed by circumstances that followed, including cost and scheduling overruns as well as the architect's ultimate resignation. (Full article...)

The governor of New South Wales is the representative of the monarch, King Charles III, in the state of New South Wales. In an analogous way to the Governor-General of Australia at the national level, the Governors of the Australian States perform constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level. The governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the Premier of New South Wales, and serves in office for an unfixed period of time—known as serving At His Majesty's pleasure—though five years is the general standard of office term. The current governor is retired judge Margaret Beazley, who succeeded David Hurley on 2 May 2019.

The office has its origin in the 18th-century colonial governors of New South Wales upon its settlement in 1788, and is the oldest continuous institution in Australia. The present incarnation of the position emerged with the Federation of Australia and the New South Wales Constitution Act 1902, which defined the viceregal office as the governor acting by and with the advice of the Executive Council of New South Wales. However, the post still ultimately represented the Government of the United Kingdom until, after continually decreasing involvement by the British government, the passage in 1942 of the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942 (see Statute of Westminster) and the Australia Act 1986, after which the governor became the direct, personal representative of the sovereign. (Full article...)

The Parliament of New South Wales, formally the Legislature of New South Wales, is the bicameral legislative body of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). It consists of the Monarch, the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (lower house) and the New South Wales Legislative Council (upper house). Each house is directly elected by the people of New South Wales at elections held approximately every four years. The legislative authority of the parliament derives from section 5 of the Constitution Act 1902 (NSW). The power to make laws that apply to New South Wales is shared with the Federal (or Commonwealth) Parliament. The houses of the New South Wales Parliament follow the Westminster parliamentary traditions, green and red chamber colours and protocols for the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council, respectively. The houses of the legislature are located in Parliament House on Macquarie Street in Sydney. (Full article...)

The COVID-19 pandemic in New South Wales, Australia was part of the worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first confirmed case in New South Wales was identified on 19 January 2020 in Sydney where three travellers returning from Wuhan, Hubei, China, tested positive for the virus.
As of 1 April 2022, there had been over 1,863,186 confirmed cases in NSW: 1,149,142 confirmed cases from PCR testing, and nearly 714,044 positive rapid antigen tests (RAT) since mid-January 2022. 17,509,209 vaccines have been administered. (Full article...)

The first Cowper ministry was the second ministry of the Colony of New South Wales, and was led by Charles Cowper. It was the first of five occasions that Cowper was Leader of the Government. Cowper was elected in the first free elections for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly held in March 1856, and fought unsuccessfully with Stuart Donaldson to form Government. When Donaldson's Government faltered a little over two months after it was formed, Cowper formed Government.

The title of Premier was widely used to refer to the Leader of Government, but not enshrined in formal use until 1920. (Full article...)

Taronga Zoo Sydney is a government-run public zoo located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in the Lower North Shore suburb of Mosman, on the shores of Sydney Harbour. It offers great views of Sydney Harbour and the city. The opening hours are between 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (May to August) and 9:30 am to 5:00 pm (September to April). Taronga is an Aboriginal word meaning "beautiful view".

It was officially opened on 7 October 1916. Taronga Zoo Sydney is managed by the Zoological Parks Board of New South Wales, under the trading name Taronga Conservation Society, along with its sister zoo, the Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo. (Full article...)

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The university was founded in its current form in 1988, though its origins as a technical institution can be traced back to the 1870s. UTS is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network (ATN), and is a member of Universities Australia (UA) and the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN).

The university is organised into 9 faculties and schools, which together administers 130 undergraduate courses and 210 postgraduate courses. In 2024, the university enrolled 51,038 students, including 35,453 undergraduate students. The university is home to over 45 research centres and institutes, who regularly collaborates along with industry and government partners. (Full article...)

Tooth and Co was the major brewer of beer in New South Wales, Australia. It was one of Australia's oldest companies, having been established as a partnership in 1835. It was formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. (Full article...)

The Kosciuszko National Park (/ˌkɒziˈʌskoʊ/ KOZ-ee-USK-oh) is a 6,900-square-kilometre (2,700 sq mi) national park and contains mainland Australia's highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko, for which it is named, and Cabramurra, the highest town in Australia. Its borders contain a mix of rugged mountains and wilderness, characterised by an alpine climate, which makes it popular with recreational skiers and bushwalkers.

The park is located in the southeastern corner of New South Wales, 354 km (220 mi) southwest of Sydney, and is contiguous with the Alpine National Park in Victoria to the south, and the Namadgi National Park in the Australian Capital Territory to the northeast. The larger towns of Cooma, Tumut and Jindabyne lie just outside and service the park. (Full article...)

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, Australia, spanning Sydney Harbour from the central business district (CBD) to the North Shore. The view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is widely regarded as an iconic image of Sydney, and of Australia itself. Nicknamed "the Coathanger" because of its arch-based design, the bridge carries rail, vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic.

Under the direction of John Bradfield of the New South Wales Department of Public Works, the bridge was designed and built by British firm Dorman Long of Middlesbrough, and opened in 1932. The bridge's general design, which Bradfield tasked the NSW Department of Public Works with producing, was a rough copy of the Hell Gate Bridge in New York City. The design chosen from the tender responses was original work created by Dorman Long, who leveraged some of the design from its own Tyne Bridge. (Full article...)

The Australian state of New South Wales has an extensive network of railways, which were integral to the growth and development of the state. The vast majority of railway lines were government built and operated, but there were also several private railways, some of which operate to this day. (Full article...)

The New South Wales Police Force strip search scandal is an ongoing policing scandal involving the use of strip searches by members of the New South Wales Police Force.

Following the introduction of a controversial law in 2001, police in New South Wales were given the power to deploy drug detection dogs at major events such as music festivals, inside licensed venues (venues that serve alcohol, such as pubs and clubs) and at stations across the Sydney Trains network. In 2006, a report by the New South Wales Ombudsman advised the government to consider repealing this law, with figures published in the report revealing that 74% of people searched after an indication from a dog were not carrying any illicit drugs. (Full article...)

The New South Wales Police Force, commonly abbreviated as NSW Police Force, is the primary law enforcement agency in the Australian state of New South Wales. Established in 1862, the organisation has more than 17,000 police officers and is the largest police force in Australia. The force has a jurisdiction covering 801,600 square kilometres and more than 8.2 million people.

In 2020, the police force had 21,455 employees – 17,348 police officers and 4,107 support staff, 432 police stations, 3,300 vehicles, 52 boats, 9 aircraft and a budget of AUD $4.8 billion. It is organised into police area commands (PACs) in metropolitan areas, police districts (PDs) in rural areas and specialist commands. (Full article...)

The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri: Millewa, Yorta Yorta: Dhungala or Tongala) is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river, having an extent of 2,508 km (1,558 mi). Its tributaries include five of the next six longest rivers of Australia (the Murrumbidgee, Darling, Lachlan, Warrego and Paroo Rivers). Together with that of the Murray, the catchments of these rivers form the Murray–Darling basin, which covers about one-seventh the area of Australia. It is widely considered Australia's most important irrigated region.

The Murray rises in the Australian Alps, draining the western side of Australia's highest mountains, then meanders northwest across Australia's inland plains, forming the border between the states of New South Wales and Victoria as it flows into South Australia. From an east–west direction it turns south at Morgan for its final 315 km (196 mi), reaching the eastern edge of Lake Alexandrina, which fluctuates in salinity. The water then flows through several channels around Hindmarsh Island and Mundoo Island. There it is joined by lagoon water from The Coorong to the south-east before emptying into Encounter Bay (a bay of the Southern Ocean) through the Murray Mouth, 10 km (6.2 mi) east of Goolwa South. Despite discharging considerable volumes of water at times, particularly before the advent of large-scale river regulation, the waters at the Murray Mouth are almost invariably slow and shallow. (Full article...)

The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritage Act 1977 and its 2010 amendments. The register is administered by the Heritage Council of NSW via Heritage NSW, a division of the Government of New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment.

The register was created in 1999 and includes items protected by heritage schedules that relate to the State, and to regional and to local environmental plans. As a result, the register contains over 20,000 statutory-listed items in either public or private ownership of historical, cultural, and architectural value. Of those items listed, approximately 1,785 items are listed as significant items for the whole of New South Wales; with the remaining items of local or regional heritage value. The items include buildings, objects, monuments, Aboriginal places, gardens, bridges, landscapes, archaeological sites, shipwrecks, relics, bridges, streets, industrial structures and conservation precincts. (Full article...)