New South Wales Holiday Tourist Guide

New South Wales (NSW) is located in the south east of Australia and is over 800,000 km2 in size. The State’s principal land use is agriculture. NSW is the powerhouse of the national economy with a Gross State Product of A$821 billion in 2022/23. It is the largest economy in Australia, accounting for 36% of the national Gross Domestic Product, well ahead of Victoria and Queensland.

Regional NSW makes an important contribution to the State’s economy with Gross Regional Product comprising almost 33% of NSW’s Gross Product. A key to regional economic growth is value adding to resource-based industries such as food and timber processing.

NSW boasts an extensive road network with high quality and well maintained highways crossing the State. NSW has around 200,000 km of roads, of which more than 36,000 km are main roads and highways. The State has about 12,000 kilometres of rail track, which is more than one quarter of the national rail network. The rail system carries about 30% of all Australian freight.

NSW’s population of 8.545 million is mainly distributed along the eastern seaboard with satellite cities north and south of Sydney at Newcastle and Wollongong. Some 66% of NSW population lives in Sydney.