New South Wales

New South Wales (abbreviated as NSW) is a state on the east coast of Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, South Australia to the west, the Tasman Sea to the east and surrounds the whole of the Australian Capital Territory. New South Wales' capital city is Sydney, which is also the nation's most populous city. In March 2014, the estimated population of New South Wales was 7.5 million, making it Australia's most populous state. Just under two-thirds of the state's population, 4.67 million, live in the Greater Sydney area. Inhabitants of New South Wales are referred to as New South Welshmen.

The colony of New South Wales was founded in 1788. It originally comprised a much larger area of the Australian mainland and also included Lord Howe Island, New Zealand, Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land. During the 19th century, large areas were separated to form the British colonies of Tasmania, South Australia, New Zealand, Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory (1863).

State of Origin

State of origin is the state or territory from which something originates. The name is also used in Australia for both small and larger sports events which generally involve domestic representative teams. The term, when used in isolation, usually refers to rugby league football, and occasionally Australian rules football matches, in which players are selected for the Australian states or territories where they either first played (hence the name 'state of origin') or played the majority of their senior football. The concept mirrors international representative rules in other sports. The annual State of Origin series is now one of Australia's most popular sporting events.

It was devised to address the drift of most talented Australian rules players to the Victorian Football League (VFL) and the effect that this had on interstate matches. A similar situation existed in regard to the New South Wales Rugby League which attracted the best players from the Queensland Rugby League because of its far stronger and financially attractive competition. The latter was due to the increased funds of the New South Wales clubs, due to poker machines, which Queensland laws prohibited.

The Wiggles

The Wiggles are an Australian children's music group formed in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1991. The current members of the group are Anthony Field, Lachlan Gillespie, Simon Pryce, and Emma Watkins. The original members were Field, Phillip Wilcher, Murray Cook, Greg Page, and Jeff Fatt. Wilcher left the group after their first album. Page retired in 2006 due to ill health and was replaced by understudy Sam Moran, but returned in 2012, replacing Moran. At the end of 2012, Page, Cook, and Fatt retired, and were replaced by Gillespie, Pryce, and Watkins. Although Cook and Fatt retained their shareholding in the group and all three continued to have input into its creative and production aspects.

Field and Fatt were members of the Australian pop band The Cockroaches in the 1980s, and Cook was a member of several bands before meeting Field and Page at Macquarie University, where they were studying to become pre-school teachers. In 1991, Field was inspired to create an album of children's music based upon concepts of early childhood education, and enlisted Cook, Page, and Fatt to assist him. They began touring to promote the album, and became so successful, they quit their teaching jobs to perform full-time. The group augmented their act with animal characters Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, and Wags the Dog, as well as the character Captain Feathersword, played by Paul Paddick since 1993. They travelled with a small group of dancers, which later grew into a larger troupe. The group's DVDs, CDs, and television programs have been produced independently since their inception. Their high point came in the early 2000s, after they broke into the American market.

South Wales

South Wales (Welsh: De Cymru) is the region of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and mid Wales and west Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the southwest of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.2 million people. The region contains almost three-quarters of the population of Wales, including the capital city of Cardiff (population approximately 350,000), as well as Swansea and Newport, with populations approximately 240,000 and 150,000 respectively. The Brecon Beacons national park covers about a third of South Wales, containing Pen y Fan, the highest mountain south of Snowdonia.

The region is loosely defined, but it is generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, sometimes extending westwards to include Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. In the western extent, from Swansea westwards, local people would probably recognise that they lived in both south Wales and west Wales — there is considerable overlap in these somewhat artificial boundaries. Areas to the north of the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains are generally considered part of mid Wales.

New South

New South, New South Democracy or New South Creed is a slogan in the history of the American South, after 1877. Reformers use it to call for a modernization of society and attitudes, to integrate more fully with the United States, and reject the economy and traditions of the Old South and the slavery-based plantation system of the antebellum period. The term was coined by its leading spokesman and Atlanta editor Henry W. Grady.

Etymology

The term has been used with different applications in mind. The original use of the term "New South" was an attempt to prescribe an attractive future based on a growing economy. The industrial revolution of the North was the model. The antebellum South was heavily agrarian. After the American Civil War, the South was impoverished and still rural; it was heavily reliant on cotton and a few other crops with low market prices. It seemed to be in great need of urbanization and industrialization. Slavery was abolished, and African Americans played a different role in the New South. Henry W. Grady made this term popular in his articles and speeches as editor of the Atlanta Constitution. Richard Hathaway Edmonds of the Baltimore Manufacturers' Record was another staunch advocate of New South industrialization. The Manufacturers' Record was one of the most widely read and powerful publications among turn of the 20th century industrialists. Historian Paul Gaston coined the specific term "New South Creed" to describe the promises of visionaries like Grady who said industrialization would bring prosperity to the region.