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The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1997
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1992-09-02
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State of SE Australia. area 801,600 sq
km/309,418 sq mi capital Sydney towns
Newcastle, Wollongong, Broken Hill physical
Great Dividing Range (including Blue
Mountains) and part of the Australian Alps
(including Snowy Mountains and Mount
Kosciusko); Riverina district, irrigated by
the Murray-Darling-Murrumbidgee river system
features a radio telescope at Parkes; Siding
Spring Mountain 859 m/2,817 ft, NW of Sydney,
with telescopes that can observe the central
sector of the galaxy. Canberra forms an
enclave within the state, and New South Wales
administers the dependency of Lord Howe
Island. products cereals, fruit, sugar,
tobacco, wool, meat, hides and skins, gold,
silver, copper, tin, zinc, coal;
hydroelectric power from the Snowy River
population (1987) 5,570,000; 60% in Sydney
history convict settlement 1788-1850; opened
to free settlement by 1819; received
self-government 1856; became a state of the
Commonwealth of Australia 1901. Since 1973
there has been decentralization to counteract
the pull of Sydney, and the New England and
Riverina districts have separatist movements.
It was called New Wales by James Cook, who
landed at Botany Bay 1770 and thought that
the coastline resembled that of Wales.