New South Wales

New South Wales has four main geographical areas:

• A coastal strip, which runs the whole length of the coast from the Queensland border to the Victorian border. In some places this is a wide plain. In other places it is just a very narrow strip of land between mountains and the sea. The regions of the coastal strip are the North Coast (which borders with Queensland), the Central Coast, the Newcastle region, the Sydney region (which is called the Cumberland Plain), the Illawarra (which is the region around the city of Wollongong) and the Shoalhaven around Nowra.

The climate of this area ranges from cool temperate on the far south coast to subtropical near the Queensland border. This whole of the coastal strip is affected by the sea. For this reason, the temperatures are often cooled in the summer by sea breezes, and warmed in the winter by the currents along the coast. This makes the climate less hot and less cold than that of the inland regions. There is also more rain than there is farther inland where it is often very dry. For this reason, the three largest cities are all on the coast. The coast also has more intensive agriculture than the inland areas, with dairy cattle and vegetables crops, as well as sugar cane and bananas in the north.

• The mountainous areas of the Great Dividing Range and the high country around them run parallel to the coast from Queensland to Victoria. This includes the New England region, the Central Tablelands, the Blue Mountains near Sydney, the Southern Highlands and the Snowy Mountains.
• The agricultural plains fill a big portion of the state's area, with many fewer people than the coast, includes the Riverina area around Wagga Wagga.
• The dry plains in the far north-west of the state, have a few small communities.

The state is bordered on the north by Queensland, on the west by South Australia, and on the south by Victoria. Its coast faces the Tasman Sea. New South Wales contains two Federal Territories: the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), and the Jervis Bay Territory.

New South Wales' three big cities are Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong which all lie along the coast. Other big towns include Albury which borders with Victoria; Broken Hill, the most westerly large town; Dubbo; Orange, Bowral, Bathurst, home of the Bathurst 1000; Port Macquarie, Tamworth, home to the country music festival; Armidale, Inverell, Lismore, Nowra, Gosford, Griffith, Queanbeyan, Leeton, Wagga Wagga, Goulburn, where a lot of Australia's fruit is grown and Coffs Harbour, a popular tourist destination.

The population of New South Wales at the end of June 2007 was 6.89 million people. Population grew by 1.1% over the preceding year,^[7] lower than the national rate of 1.5%.

62.9% of NSW's population is based in Sydney.^[8]

• 
  The City of Sydney seen from Taronga Park Zoo
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  The Sydney Royal Easter show is a popular annual event.
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  Boolominbah at Armidale is one of the finest examples of Federation architecture in New South Wales.
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  The pub and general store at Ourimbah show a scene which is familiar in most towns.
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  Ninety Mile Beach
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  Mount Kembla rises above the narrow coastal plain at Wollongong.
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  The Three Sisters are a famous landmark in the Blue Mountains.
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  The Murrumbidgee River flows through Wagga Wagga.
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  Crystal Shower Falls in Dorrigo National Park
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  Beef cattle and sheep are major industries in the agricultural plains.
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  Grain storage silos near Newcastle
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  Dams are used to store water and generate power.

• australian-post-codes.com Postcode Search Archived 2010-07-16 at the Wayback Machine

• Postcode Tool – New South Wales Archived 2007-12-14 at the Wayback Machine

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