This article is about former or proposed entities known as North Australia. For northernmost regions of Australia in general, see
Northern Australia.
North Australia can refer to a short-lived former British colony, a former federal territory of the Commonwealth of Australia, or a proposed state which would replace the current
Northern Territory.
Colony (1846–1847)
A
colony of North Australia existed briefly after it was authorised by
letters patent of 17 February 1846. The colony comprised all land in the Northern Territory and the present state of
Queensland lying north of the
26th parallel. The
capital was at
Port Curtis, now called
Gladstone, under
ColonelGeorge Barney as
Lieutenant-Governor and Superintendent.
Charles Augustus FitzRoy, the
Governor of New South Wales, was Governor. The colony was proclaimed at a ceremony at Settlement Point on 30 January 1847. The establishment of the new colony, and its status as a penal colony, attracted much criticism in the
New South Wales Legislative Council.[1][2] The
Letters Patent establishing the colony were revoked in December the same year, after a change of government in Britain, although Colonel Barney and his party did not receive the news until 1847, when the news arrived in Sydney on 15 April 1847. The colony was intended as a new
penal colony after the end of
transportation in the older Australian colonies.[3]
North Australia was a short-lived
territory of
Australia.
George Pearce,
Minister for Home and Territories in the federal government in the 1920s, thought that the Northern Territory was too large to be adequately governed. So on 1 February 1927, under the Northern Australia Act 1926 (Cth), the
Northern Territory was split into two territories, North Australia and
Central Australia, respectively above and below latitude 20° S.[4][5][6][7] However, on 12 June 1931, the two were reunited as the Northern Territory.
24. Claimed in 1908; territory formed 1962; overlaps portions of Argentine and Chilean claims, borders not enforced but claim not renounced under the
Antarctic Treaty.