Subdivision of Australia

Strange Maps is one of the top blogs on WordPress today. On the front page, it has maps of Australia from 1787 ’till 1863. It shows the subdivision of Australia. You’ll notice that New South Wales covered a big part of Australia in the 18th century. Today, NSW is a rather small state.

Copy pasted from Strange Maps:
1787-1825: NSW covers roughly half of the island, including present-day Tasmania.
1825-1831: the island of Van Diemen’s Land is separated from NSW.
1831-1836: the territory of Western Australia is formed.
1836-1851: South Australia is formed out of part of NSW and part of the unorganised strip between NSW and Western Australia.
1851-1855: Victoria is separated from NSW.
1855-1859: NSW was extended to ‘fill the void’, so to speak.
1859-1861: the northeastern part of NSW is separated to form Queensland, chopping the remainder of NSW in two: the large stretch in the middle of the country, from north to south shore, is now separated from the rest of NSW by South Australia and Queensland.
1861-1862: South Australia expands westward to the detriment of ‘central’ NSW.
1862-1863: Queensland expands westward at the expense of ‘central’ NSW.
1863-1908: ‘Central’ NSW is placed under the jurisdiction of South Australia as the Northern Territory. According to Wikipedia, this state of affairs lasted until 1911, not 1908.