Places to Visit in New South Wales

New South Wales occupies the southeastern coast of Australia, the site of the country's first British settlement at Sydney Cove in 1788, and remains the most populous state, with Sydney as both its capital and the nation's largest city. The state's geography runs in bands from east to west: a narrow coastal strip of beaches and harbours, the Great Dividing Range rising through the Blue Mountains and further ranges to the south and north, and the vast semi-arid interior beyond the mountains toward the state's border with South Australia and Queensland.

The coastline north and south of Sydney holds some of Australia's best-known beach towns and national parks, including Royal National Park immediately south of the city and the Hunter Valley wine region inland to the north. Inland regional centres such as Bathurst, Orange, and Dubbo (home to Taronga's sister zoo) sit beyond the Blue Mountains, while the far west of the state gives way to Outback conditions around Broken Hill.

New South Wales shares Australia's opposite-season climate, running warmest from December to February and coolest from June to August; Sydney's temperate coastal conditions moderate the extremes felt further inland, where the Blue Mountains and the western plains see colder winter nights and hotter, drier summers. Spring (September–November) and autumn (March–May) offer the most reliable combination of mild temperatures and lower rainfall for travel across the state, avoiding both summer's bushfire-season heat and winter's shorter days in the mountains.