List of Australian capital cities

There are eight capital cities in Australia, all of which function at a sub-national level. Melbourne was the national capital of the Federation of Australia from 1901 until 1927, when the seat of national government was moved to the newly created city of Canberra which currently serves as the national capital.

In each capital city, local judicial, administrative and legislative duties are performed for the jurisdiction. In the case of state and territory capital cities, they also happen to be the most populous city in their respective jurisdiction. The Australian external territory of Norfolk Island also has an official capital, Kingston, however, this is just where the administrative centre of government is located; the de facto capital is Burnt Pine.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA NORTHERN TERRITORY SOUTH AUSTRALIA QUEENSLAND NEW SOUTH WALES VICTORIA TASMANIA ●Perth ●Adelaide ●Melbourne ★Canberra (ACT) ●Sydney ●Brisbane ●Hobart ●Darwin

State and Territory Capitals of Australia

Jurisdiction	Capital	City Population	State/Territory Population	Date of statehood	Capital since	Image
Australia and Australian Capital Territory	Canberra*		381,488	1911	1913	View of Civic from Mount Ainslie, with Telstra Tower in the background
New South Wales	Sydney	4,757,083	7,410,399	1788	1788	Skyline of the Sydney central business district
Victoria	Melbourne	4,347,955	5,739,341	1851	1851	The Melbourne skyline on the Yarra River
Queensland	Brisbane	2,238,394	4,656,803	1859	1860	Brisbane's CBD, with the Story Bridge in the foreground
Western Australia	Perth	1,972,358	2,519,321	1829	1829	View of Perth CBD from the air
South Australia	Adelaide	1,291,666	1,670,827	1842	1856	View of the Riverside Precinct from Elder Park.
Tasmania	Hobart	217,973	513,159	1825	1826	View of the Hobart downtown district and Mount Wellington from Constitution Dock
Northern Territory	Darwin	136,245	240,759	Has not attained Statehood**	1911	View of Darwin CBD

* While Canberra is the capital of Australia, it is not the capital of the ACT in any official sense; it is the principal settlement within the territory and can be considered analogous with the ACT. ** in 1911, South Australia transferred responsibility for governing the Northern Territory to the Commonwealth Government of Australia. It was granted self-governance in 1978, however the Northern Territory is still considered a territory, not a state, under Commonwealth rule.