British penal and settler colony proclaimed by Governor Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788 (formally established 7 February 1788), originally claiming the whole eastern half of the Australian continent plus New Zealand under a single administration.
Progressively lost territory as Van Diemen's Land (1825), South Australia (1836), New Zealand (1841), Victoria (1851), Queensland (1859) and the Northern Territory (1863) were separated into their own colonies; the residual colony federated with five other British Australian colonies on 1 January 1901 to form the Commonwealth of Australia (canonical record 'commonwealth-of-australia'), becoming the state of New South Wales within it.
The atlas holds 2 border frames for Colony of New South Wales — the shape you scrub through changes in 1788 · 1859.
Standard scholarly history of the colony/state from 1788 founding through to the present, the most directly on-topic single volume.
Landmark narrative history of the convict transportation system that founded and sustained the colony, 1787-1868.