For lands administration purposes, New South Wales is divided into 141 counties, which are further divided into parishes. The counties were first set down in the Colony of New South Wales, which 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 district types. Land boards were used at various periods. Thirteen hundreds were briefly proclaimed in Cumberland County.
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 19th century.[1]
The first county proclaimed was Cumberland on 4 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. In Cumberland County only, 13 hundreds were proclaimed, then repealed in 1888.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.
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 time zone.
A number of water supply authorities are named County Council, but only Rous County Council has the same name as its cadastral county.
Genealogy records from the 19th and early 20th 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,[2] Broken Hill, Yancowinna county[3] and Wagga-Wagga, Wynyard county.[4]
Parts of the land which were outside the Nineteen Counties were divided into squatting districts in the early 19th century http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview?pi=nla.map-nk5928-sd. In 1846 New South Wales was divided into settled districts, intermediate districts and unsettled districts.[5] In 1861 the system of settled and unsettled districts were abolished with the Crown Lands Acts,[6] 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:
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albury | Wagga Wagga | Wagga Wagga | Eastern |
| Armidale | Armidale | Armidale | Eastern |
| Balranald South | Hay | Hay | Central |
| Balranald | Hay | Western | Western |
| Barmedman East | Forbes | Central | |
| Barmedman | Forbes | Central | |
| Bathurst | Orange | Orange | Eastern |
| Bega | Cooma | Goulburn | Eastern |
| Bellingen | Grafton | Eastern | |
| Berrima | Sydney | Eastern | Eastern |
| Bingara | Moree | Moree | Central |
| Bombala | Cooma | Goulburn | Eastern |
| Boorowa | Goulburn | Goulburn | Eastern |
| Bourke | Bourke | Western | Western |
| Braidwood | Goulburn | Goulburn | Eastern |
| Breewarrina | Bourke | Western | Western |
| Breewarrina East | Bourke | Central | |
| Campbelltown | Sydney | Eastern | |
| Carcoar | Orange | Orange | Eastern |
| Casino | Grafton | Grafton | Eastern |
| Cassillis | Maitland | Eastern | |
| Cobar | Bourke | Western | Western |
| Cobar East | Bourke | Central | |
| Condobolin | Forbes | Forbes | Central |
| Cooma | Cooma | Goulburn | Eastern |
| Coonabarabran | Tamworth | Tamworth | Central |
| Coonamble | Dubbo | Dubbo | Eastern |
| Cootamundry | Wagga Wagga | Wagga Wagga | Eastern |
| Cootamundry Central | Wagga Wagga | Eastern | |
| Corowa | Wagga Wagga | Wagga Wagga | Central |
| Cowra | Orange | Orange | Eastern |
| Deniliquin | Hay | Hay | Central |
| Dubbo | Dubbo | Dubbo | Eastern |
| Dungog | Maitland | Maitland | Eastern |
| Eden | Cooma | Goulburn | Eastern |
| Forbes | Forbes | Forbes | Central |
| Glen Innes | Armidale | Armidale | Eastern |
| Gosford | Sydney | Maitland | Eastern |
| Goulburn | Goulburn | Goulburn | Eastern |
| Grafton | Grafton | Grafton | Eastern |
| Grenfell | Forbes | Forbes | Central |
| Gundagai | Wagga Wagga | Wagga Wagga | Eastern |
| Gunnedah | Tamworth | Tamworth | Central |
| Gunning | Goulburn | Goulburn | Eastern |
| Hay North | Hay | Western | Western |
| Hay | Hay | Hay | Central |
| Hillston North | Hay | Western | Western |
| Hillston | Hay | Hay | Central |
| Inverell | Armidale | Armidale | Eastern |
| Kempsey | Grafton | Grafton | Eastern |
| Kiama | Sydney | Sydney | Eastern |
| Lismore | Grafton | Grafton | Eastern |
| Lithgow | Sydney | Orange | Eastern |
| Liverpool | Sydney | Eastern | |
| Maitland | Maitland | Maitland | Eastern |
| Metropolitan | Sydney | Sydney | Eastern |
| Milton | Sydney | Sydney | Eastern |
| Molong | Orange | Orange | Eastern |
| Moree | Moree | Moree | Central |
| Moruya | Sydney | Eastern | |
| Mudgee | Orange | Orange | Eastern |
| Murrurundi | Tamworth | Tamworth | Eastern |
| Murwillumbah | Grafton | Grafton | Eastern |
| Muswellbrook | Maitland | Maitland | Eastern |
| Narrabri | Tamworth | Moree | Central |
| Narrandera | Wagga Wagga | Hay | Central |
| Newcastle | Maitland | Maitland | Eastern |
| Nowra | Sydney | Sydney | Eastern |
| Nyngan | Dubbo | Eastern | |
| Orange | Orange | Orange | Eastern |
| Parkes | Forbes | Forbes | Central |
| Parramatta | Sydney | Sydney | Eastern |
| Paterson | Maitland | Eastern | |
| Penrith | Sydney | Sydney | Eastern |
| Picton | Sydney | Sydney | Eastern |
| Port Macquarie | Maitland | Grafton | Eastern |
| Queanbeyan | Cooma | Goulburn | Eastern |
| Raymonod Terrace | Maitland | Eastern | |
| Rylstone | Orange | Orange | Eastern |
| Scone | Maitland | Maitland | Eastern |
| Singleton | Maitland | Maitland | Eastern |
| Stroud | Maitland | Maitland | Eastern |
| Tamworth | Tamworth | Tamworth | Eastern |
| Taree | Maitland | Maitland | Eastern |
| Tenterfield | Armidale | Armidale | Eastern |
| Tumbarumba North | Wagga Wagga | Eastern | |
| Tumbarumba | Wagga Wagga | Eastern | |
| Tumut | Wagga Wagga | Wagga Wagga | Eastern |
| Urana | Wagga Wagga | Wagga Wagga | Central |
| Wagga Wagga | Wagga Wagga | Wagga Wagga | Central |
| Walcha | Armidale | Armidale | Eastern |
| Walgett North | Moree | Western | Western |
| Walgett | Moree | Moree | Central |
| Warialda | Moree | Moree | Central |
| Warren | Dubbo | Eastern | |
| Wellington | Orange | Orange | Eastern |
| Wentworth | Hay | Western | Western |
| Wilcannia | Bourke | Western | Western |
| Windsor | Sydney | Sydney | Eastern |
| Wollombi | Maitland | Eastern | |
| Wollongong | Sydney | Sydney | Eastern |
| Wyalong | Forbes | Central | |
| Yass | Goulburn | Goulburn | Eastern |
| Young | Goulburn | Wagga Wagga | Eastern |