Economy

New South Wales provides a wide range of agricultural environments, cool mountains to hot lowlands, semi-desert to semi-tropical, and consequently produces a wide range of agricultural products.

Altogether a wide selection of produce, consisting of 38 different fruits and 55 different vegetables, are grown for commercial use in New South Wales.

Most grains in New South Wales are grown in the portion of the Australian Grain Belt which crosses the centre of New South Wales from southern Queensland to western Victoria.

Altogether, the different livestock industries of NSW produce 44% of the product of agriculture by value, and in 2008 they produced 1 billion tonnes of meat and 1 billion litres of milk.

The wine industry of NSW produced the equivalent of 49 million cases of wine in 2009, at over 400 wineries /vineyards ranging in output from a few hundred cases to over 10 million.

The New South Wales coal industry has grown from its convict origins into a highly productive industry that in 2007-08 contributed over $8 billion in export earnings to the economy.

New South Wales is a major centre for Information and Financial Services, Professional and Business Services, Trade and Transport.

With nearly 1,500 fishing businesses processing wild fish and aquaculture worth $150 million, the seafood industry generates $500 million overall for the New South Wales economy.

Forest management must provide for the many uses of the forest estate while at the same time maintaining the forests in a healthy and vigorous condition.

There have been significant changes in the New South Wales labour force over the past three decades, relating to occupational structure, labour force participation and the relative share of part-time employment.

There has been substantial growth in underemployment over the past two decades due to structural changes and the growth of involuntary part-time and casual employment.

New South Wales is Australia’s largest potential market for oil and natural gas and generates a third of the total energy demand. Exploration drilling for gas is about to begin in the Sydney Basin.

Since Australia’s first commercial export of 150 tons of coal was shipped to India in 1799, New South Wales ports now trade over $250 billion worth of goods annually, $80 billion through Sydney Airport alone.

In 2006-07, taxation was the second most important source of revenue in New South Wales, representing 37% of total revenue.