Which Australian state has the longest border?
Somewhat surprisingly, New South Wales has the longest border of all the Australian states. The New South Wales border is 4,625km long.
Australia’s states are massive. The area of New South Wales is bigger than that of Turkey or Chile. The size of South Australia is nearly four times as big as the United Kingdom. And how big is Western Australia? Well, it would be the tenth largest country in the world if it was independent.
But size of state doesn’t necessarily match up to border length. And this makes “Which Australian state has the longest border?” an intriguing pub quiz question.
It’s a question that Australia Travel Questions would have got wrong, too. First guess would have been Western Australia, simply because it’s so big. And then there would have been debate over whether Queensland’s border was longer, because it’s horizontal across the top of New South Wales then vertical up the side of the Northern Territory. Then, perhaps, it might be South Australia… After all, South Australia borders Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales AND Victoria.
Which Australian state has the longest border? Official stats
Well, to find out which Australian state has the longest border, we can pay a visit to the Australian Government’s Geoscience Australia department. Its website is full of handy Australian facts and figures – including state border lengths.
Aside from island state Tasmania, the shortest Australian land border belongs to the often-forgotten Jervis Bay Territory. This tiny territory, which historically acts as sea access for the Australian Capital Territory, has a 21km border with New South Wales.
The Australian Capital Territory itself isn’t much more formidable. The ACT may be the only place in Australia where cannabis is decriminalised, and home to the capital of Australia, but its border is a puny 306km long.
Moving onto the bigger boys, a surprise sixth place goes to Australia’s largest state, Western Australia. Its border is 1,874km long.
Victoria is in fifth, with a border of 2,550km. Most of that is along the Murray River with New South Wales. Border towns such as Swan Hill, Echuca and Mildura probably mean that Victoria has the border most worthy of visiting.
The Northern Territory, with a 3,180km border, and South Australia, with a 3,187km border, are extremely close. But perhaps the biggest surprise is that Queensland’s border is only slightly longer – it’s 3,337km long.
New South Wales border length
So which Australian state has the longest border? It’s New South Wales, and the result isn’t even that close. New South Wales has 4,625km of border. It’s only the fourth largest state, but has sizable borders with Victoria, South Australia and Queensland. And that sense of being a bit more surrounded than the other states hands New South Wales the prize…
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