Lands administrative divisions of New South Wales

The 141 counties of New South Wales, with the original Nineteen shown in pink
The parishes of Cumberland County

The lands administrative divisions of New South Wales refers to the 141 counties within the Colony of New South Wales, that later became the Australian state of New South Wales.

The counties were further subdivided into 7,419 parishes. There are also three land divisions, approximately one hundred land districts, and several other types of districts as well as land boards used at various periods. There were also thirteen hundreds proclaimed in Cumberland County, which were later abolished. These divisions are part of the lands administrative divisions of Australia. Unlike the local government areas of New South Wales, which have gone through restructuring periods by the government, the counties have been the same since the nineteenth century.[1]

Creation of county areas

1832 map showing the nine counties in use before Thomas Mitchell surveyed the Nineteen Counties in 1834

The first county proclaimed was Cumberland on 6 June 1788. Northumberland was named in 1804. Several other counties were established around Sydney; by the 1820s there were nine counties (see 1828 and 1832 maps). They were: Roxburgh, Northumberland, Durham, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Argyle, Camden, Ayr and Cambridge. They were in the approximate area of the present day cadastral units except that some of them were larger and took up land which was in 1834 assigned to other counties. Ayr and Cambridge were not used in the 1834 counties, taking up area which is approximately in what became Macquarie County and Brisbane County.

Instructions were given to Governor Brisbane in 1825 to survey New South Wales and divide it into counties of various sizes, hundreds, and parishes between 15 and 25 square miles (40 and 65 km²). The Nineteen Counties were surveyed by Thomas Mitchell in 1834. Thirteen hundreds were proclaimed in Cumberland county, but not in anywhere else in New South Wales, and these were repealed in 1888.

As the counties are based on area, rather than population, there are huge differences in the populations of the coastal counties with those for the remote west. The whole of Sydney with several million people is located within Cumberland County, while there are many counties for areas in the Far West which have a very low population.

Use

The counties have little official function and are only now used for land titles and geographic surveying, and as an area of coverage within some industrial awards. Yancowinna County is also legally the only part of the state in the South Australian timezone.

Genealogy records from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for New South Wales commonly use the town name followed by the county. The 1911 Britannica lists all towns in New South Wales the same way, such as Albury, Goulburn county, Broken Hill, Yancowinna county and Wagga Wagga, Wynyard county.

Early land districts

Parts of the land which were outside the Nineteen Counties were divided into squatting districts in the early nineteenth century . In 1846 New South Wales was divided into settled districts, intermediate districts and unsettled districts.[2] In 1861 the system of settled and unsettled districts were abolished with the Crown Lands Acts,[3] while new types of districts called first and second class settled districts, as well as town land and suburban land came into being. The various districts used:

Land divisions, boards and districts

The key from a typical cadastral map from the 1890s showed four types of subdivisions; the parish, county, land district and land division. This one is located in the County of Wallace

The Crown Lands Act of 1884 further divided New South Wales into three land divisions; Western, Central and Eastern; as well as Land Boards and Land Districts. This 1890 map shows 14 land boards and 95 land districts; while a 1907 map shows 13 land boards and 103 land districts. The new land districts were different from the previous land districts which had mostly been used in the western areas of the state before counties were proclaimed there. The land boards were named after the location of the head office. The table below shows the land districts used in 1890 and 1907 (some of the locations of the land boards changed and there were new land districts), with the land boards and land divisions:

Land District Land Board (1890) Land Board (1907) Land Division
AlburyWagga Wagga Wagga Wagga Eastern
ArmidaleArmidale Armidale Eastern
Balranald SouthHay Hay Central
Balranald Hay Western Western
Barmedman East Forbes Central
Barmedman Forbes Central
BathurstOrange Orange Eastern
BegaCooma Goulburn Eastern
Bellingen GraftonEastern
BerrimaSydney Eastern Eastern
BingaraMoree Moree Central
BombalaCooma Goulburn Eastern
BoorowaGoulburn Goulburn Eastern
Bourke Bourke Western Western
BraidwoodGoulburn Goulburn Eastern
Breewarrina Bourke Western Western
Breewarrina East Bourke Central
CampbelltownSydney Eastern
CarcoarOrange Orange Eastern
CasinoGrafton Grafton Eastern
CassillisMaitland Eastern
Cobar Bourke Western Western
Cobar East Bourke Central
CondobolinForbes Forbes Central
CoomaCooma Goulburn Eastern
CoonabarabranTamworth Tamworth Central
CoonambleDubbo Dubbo Eastern
CootamundryWagga Wagga Wagga Wagga Eastern
Cootamundry Central Wagga Wagga Eastern
CorowaWagga Wagga Wagga Wagga Central
CowraOrange Orange Eastern
DeniliquinHay Hay Central
DubboDubbo Dubbo Eastern
DungogMaitland Maitland Eastern
EdenCooma Goulburn Eastern
ForbesForbes Forbes Central
Glen InnesArmidale Armidale Eastern
GosfordSydney Maitland Eastern
GoulburnGoulburn Goulburn Eastern
GraftonGrafton Grafton Eastern
GrenfellForbes Forbes Central
GundagaiWagga Wagga Wagga Wagga Eastern
GunnedahTamworth Tamworth Central
GunningGoulburn Goulburn Eastern
Hay NorthHay Western Western
HayHay Hay Central
Hillston NorthHay Western Western
HillstonHay Hay Central
InverellArmidale Armidale Eastern
KempseyGrafton Grafton Eastern
KiamaSydney Sydney Eastern
LismoreGrafton Grafton Eastern
LithgowSydney Orange Eastern
LiverpoolSydney Eastern
MaitlandMaitland Maitland Eastern
MetropolitanSydney Sydney Eastern
MiltonSydney Sydney Eastern
MolongOrange Orange Eastern
MoreeMoree Moree Central
MoruyaSydney Eastern
MudgeeOrange Orange Eastern
MurrurundiTamworth Tamworth Eastern
MurwillumbahGrafton Grafton Eastern
MuswellbrookMaitland Maitland Eastern
NarrabriTamworth Moree Central
NarranderaWagga Wagga Hay Central
NewcastleMaitland Maitland Eastern
NowraSydney Sydney Eastern
Nyngan Dubbo Eastern
OrangeOrange Orange Eastern
ParkesForbes Forbes Central
ParramattaSydney Sydney Eastern
PatersonMaitland Eastern
PenrithSydney Sydney Eastern
PictonSydney Sydney Eastern
Port MacquarieMaitland Grafton Eastern
QueanbeyanCooma Goulburn Eastern
Raymonod TerraceMaitland Eastern
RylstoneOrange Orange Eastern
SconeMaitland Maitland Eastern
SingletonMaitland Maitland Eastern
StroudMaitland Maitland Eastern
TamworthTamworth Tamworth Eastern
TareeMaitland Maitland Eastern
TenterfieldArmidale Armidale Eastern
Tumbarumba North Wagga Wagga Eastern
Tumbarumba Wagga Wagga Eastern
TumutWagga Wagga Wagga Wagga Eastern
UranaWagga Wagga Wagga Wagga Central
Wagga WaggaWagga Wagga Wagga Wagga Central
WalchaArmidale Armidale Eastern
Walgett NorthMoree Western Western
WalgettMoree Moree Central
WarialdaMoree Moree Central
Warren Dubbo Eastern
WellingtonOrange Orange Eastern
WentworthHay Western Western
Wilcannia Bourke Western Western
WindsorSydney Sydney Eastern
WollombiMaitland Eastern
WollongongSydney Sydney Eastern
Wyalong Forbes Central
YassGoulburn Goulburn Eastern
YoungGoulburn Wagga Wagga Eastern

Table of counties[6]

County Year of erection number of parishes
Argyle 1821 50
Arrawatta 1862 70
Ashburnham 1850 60
Auckland 1843 55
Baradine 1862 78
Barrona 1884 28
Bathurst 1829 67
Benarba 1862 102
Beresford 1848 49
Bland 1862 65
Blaxland 1862 92
Bligh 1829 47
Booroondarra 1884 36
Bourke 1862 55
Boyd 1862 39
Brisbane 1829 58
Buccleuch 1848 35
Buckland 1848 33
Buller 1850 45
Burnett 1862 56
Cadell 1862 28
Caira 1862 80
Camden 1805 55
Canbelego 1875 52
Clarence 1848 40
Clarendon 1850 36
Clarke 1862 51
Clive 1850 54
Clyde 1862 80
Cook 1829 45
Cooper 1862 76
Courallie 1862 54
Cowley 1848 23
Cowper 1862 117
Culgoa 1884 46
Cumberland 1788 57
Cunningham 1862 59
Dampier 1848 41
Darling 1850 36
Delalah 1884 23
Denham 1862 44
Denison 1862 31
Dowling 1862 51
Drake 1850 39
Dudley 1848 37
Durham 1829 63
Evelyn 1884 41
Ewenmar 1862 53
Farnell 1884 34
Finch 1875 120
Fitzgerald 1884 31
Fitzroy 1862 46
Flinders 1862 71
Forbes 1862 38
Franklin 1862 44
Georgiana 1829 59
Gipps 1862 71
Gloucester 1829 79
Gordon 1850 39
Gough 1862 63
Goulburn 1850 38
Gowen 1850 51
Gregory 1862 91
Gresham 1850 33
Gunderbooka 1875 45
Harden 1850 42
Hardinge 1862 45
Hawes 1848 39
Hume 1862 43
Hunter 1829 64
Inglis 1850 22
Irrara 1884 47
Jamison 1862 64
Kennedy 1862 61
Kilfera 1884 15
Killara 1875 53
King 1829 48
Landsborough 1875 25
Leichhardt 1862 105
Lincoln 1850 52
Livingstone 1862 54
Macquarie 1830 62
Manara 1884 43
Menindee 1862 29
Mitchell 1862 40
Monteagle 1850 35
Mootwingee 1884 39
Mossgiel 1884 87
Mouramba 1884 64
Murchison 1862 48
Murray 1829 54
Nandewar 1862 33
Napier 1850 29
Narran 1875 97
Narromine 1862 46
Nicholson 1862 70
Northumberland 1804 68
Oxley 1862 43
Parry 1848 35
Perry 1862 58
Phillip 1829 45
Poole 1884 12
Pottinger 1850 64
Raleigh 1848 31
Rankin 1875 36
Richmond 1848 36
Robinson 1884 46
Rous 1848 74
Roxburgh 1829 48
Sandon 1850 44
Selwyn 1862 48
St Vincent 1862 76
Stapylton 1862 57
Sturt 1829 42
Taila 1862 42
Tandora 1884 27
Tara 1862 54
Thoulcanna 1884 19
Tongowoko 1884 20
Townsend 1862 111
Ularara 1884 29
Urana 1862 73
Vernon 1848 44
Wakool 1862 98
Waljeers 1862 60
Wallace 1848 65
Waradgery 1862 83
Wellesley 1848 49
Wellington 1829 59
Wentworth 1862 71
Werunda 1875 33
Westmoreland 1814 46
White 1862 47
Windeyer 1862 47
Woore 1884 32
Wynyard 1850 53
Yancowinna 1884 50
Yanda 1875 55
Yantara 1884 33
Young 1875 58
Yungnulgra 1884 39

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Parish and historical maps". Land & Property Information. Government of New South Wales. 2012. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  2. ↑ The Parish Map
  3. ↑ NSW Archives in Brief 93 - Background to conditional Purchase of Crown land
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Map of a portion of Australia showing the area of the twenty located counties of New South Wales, National Library of Australia, 1841.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Old Welsh Books with English Translations"
  6. ↑ J. F. Atchison, 1980, ‘The counties of New South Wales’, in “The Australian Surveyor”, v.30, no.1, pp.32-43.

External links

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