Lord Howe Island in the context of Australian Colonies

The states and territories are the national subdivisions and second level of government of Australia. The states are partially sovereign, administrative divisions that are self-governing polities, having ceded some sovereign rights to the federal government. They have their own constitutions, legislatures, executive governments, judiciaries and law enforcement agencies that administer and deliver public policies and programs. Territories can be autonomous and administer local policies and programs much like the states in practice, but are still legally subordinate to the federal government.

Australia has six federated states: New South Wales (including Lord Howe Island), Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania (including Macquarie Island), Victoria, and Western Australia. Australia also has ten federal territories, out of which three are internal territories: the Australian Capital Territory, the Jervis Bay Territory, and the Northern Territory on the Australian mainland; and seven are external territories: the Ashmore and Cartier Islands, the Australian Antarctic Territory, Christmas Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, the Coral Sea Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, and Norfolk Island that are offshore dependent territories. Every state and internal territory (except the Jervis Bay Territory) is self-governing with its own independent executive government, legislature, and judicial system, while the rest only have local government status overseen by federal departments.

Olea paniculata, commonly known as the native olive, is a plant of the genus Olea and a relative of the olive. It grows natively in Pakistan and southwestern China (Yunnan) through tropical Asia to Australia (Queensland and New South Wales) and the Pacific islands of New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Lord Howe Island.

New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a state on the east coast of Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Coral and Tasman Seas to the east. The Australian Capital Territory and Jervis Bay Territory are enclaves within the state. New South Wales' state capital is Sydney, which is also Australia's most populous city. In December 2024, the population of New South Wales was over 8.5 million, making it Australia's most populous state. Almost two-thirds of the state's population, 5.3 million, live in the Greater Sydney area.

The Colony of New South Wales was founded as a British penal colony in 1788. It originally comprised more than half of the Australian mainland with its western boundary set at 129th meridian east in 1825. The colony then also included the island territories of Van Diemen's Land, Lord Howe Island, and Norfolk Island. During the 19th century, most of the colony's area was detached to form separate British colonies that eventually became the various states and territories of Australia. The Swan River Colony (later called the Colony of Western Australia) was never administered as part of New South Wales.

Norfolk Island (/ˈnɔːrfək/ NOR-fək, locally /ˈnɔːrfoʊk/ NOR-fohk; Norf'k Ailen) is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, 1,412 kilometres (877 mi) directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about 900 kilometres (560 mi) from Lord Howe Island. Together with the neighbouring Phillip Island and Nepean Island, the three islands collectively form the Territory of Norfolk Island. At the 2021 census, it had 2,188 inhabitants living on a total area of about 35 km (14 sq mi). Its capital is Kingston.

East Polynesians were the first to settle Norfolk Island, but they had already departed when Great Britain settled it as part of its 1788 colonisation of Australia. The island served as a convict penal settlement from 6 March 1788 until 5 May 1855, except for an 11-year hiatus between 15 February 1814 and 6 June 1825, when it lay abandoned. On 8 June 1856, permanent civilian residence on the island began when descendants of the Bounty mutineers were relocated from Pitcairn Island. In 1914, the UK handed Norfolk Island over to Australia, but did not Annex it to Australia, requiring it to only manage its requirements, not own it, as an external territory.

UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00.

It is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a possible candidate for ASEAN Common Time, mainly due to China's large population, with an estimated population of 1.4 billion people.

Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; UTC+10:00), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; UTC+09:30) and Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; UTC+08:00).

Time is regulated by the individual state governments, some of which observe daylight saving time (DST). Daylight saving time (+1 hour) is used between the first Sunday in October and the first Sunday in April in jurisdictions in the south and south-east:

UTC+11:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +11:00. This time is used in:

Ball's Pyramid is an uninhabited islet in the Pacific Ocean located 20 kilometres (12 mi; 11 nmi) southeast of Lord Howe Island, between Australia and New Zealand. The steep rocky basalt outcrop is the eroded plug of a shield volcano and caldera that formed 6.4 million years ago. It is 572 metres (1,877 ft) high, 1,100 metres (3,609 ft) long and only 300 metres (984 ft) across, making it the tallest volcanic stack in the world.

Ball's Pyramid, which is part of Australia's Lord Howe Island Marine Park, is positioned in the centre of a submarine shelf surrounded by rough seas, which makes any approach difficult. The pyramid is home to the only remaining wild population of the giant Lord Howe Island stick insect, thought to be extinct since 1920 until their discovery in 2001.

The Admiralty Group of islets consists of eight rocky outcrops within 2 km of the north of Lord Howe Island. From south to north, these are:

1. Soldier’s Cap
2. Sugarloaf
3. South Island
4. Noddy
5. Roach Island
6. Tenth of June
7. North Rock
8. Flat Rock

Roach Island is the largest, being about 15 ha in area, 800 m long and 86 m in maximum height, with a much-photographed 15-metre-tall tunnel at its northern end. Basalt lava flows are crossed by many dikes. Vegetation consists of grasses, sedges and a few bushes.

Rear-Admiral of the Blue Henry Lidgbird Ball (7 December 1756 – 22 October 1818) was a Royal Navy officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. While Ball was best known as the commander of the First Fleet's HMAT Supply (1759), he was also notable for the exploration and the establishment of colonies around what is now Australia and New Zealand. Specifically, Ball explored the area around Port Jackson and Broken Bay, helped establish the Norfolk Island penal settlement, and discovered and named Lord Howe Island.

Ball joined the Royal Navy and was a crewman of various ships, before being commissioned as a lieutenant on 23 April 1778. Ball's first command was HMS Seaflower off the Northern Irish coast from 1783 until 1786. In October 1787 Ball was appointed to command HMAT Supply and to join Captain Arthur Phillip's expedition to establish a penal colony in New South Wales. The expedition departed England on 13 May 1787, and Supply was accompanied by 10 other ships. Of all the ships in the fleet, Supply reached Botany Bay first, on 18 January 1788. Supply would remain in the colony under the overall command of Governor Phillip, and transport persons to establish a secondary settlement on Norfolk Island after which Supply was mainly used to transport supplies and people between the two settlements.

Howea forsteriana, the Kentia palm, thatch palm or palm court palm, is a species of flowering plant in the palm family, Arecaceae, endemic to Lord Howe Island in Australia. It is also widely grown on Norfolk Island. It is a relatively slow-growing palm, eventually growing up to 10 m (33 ft) tall by 6 m (20 ft) wide. Its fronds can reach 3 m (10 ft) long. The palm gets its common name from the capital of Lord Howe Island, Kentia, and the genus name, Howea, from the island itself. The species name forsteriana is after Johann Reinhold Forster and Georg Forster, father and son, who accompanied Captain Cook as naturalists on his second voyage to the Pacific in 1772–1775. The seeds require six years to mature.

The species is considered vulnerable by the World Conservation Union. It is cultivated on Lord Howe Island by collecting wild seeds and germinating them for export worldwide as an ornamental garden or houseplant. The trade in the seeds and seedlings is tightly regulated. This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Dryococelus australis, also known as the Lord Howe Island stick insect, Lord Howe Island phasmid or, locally, as the tree lobster, is a species of stick insect that lives in the Lord Howe Island Group. It is the only member of the monotypic genus Dryococelus. Thought to be extinct by 1920, it was rediscovered in 2001. Although it had been extirpated from Lord Howe itself, a remnant population of 24 individuals was rediscovered on the sea stack of Ball's Pyramid. The species has been called "the rarest insect in the world".

Ontong Java Atoll or Luangiua (formerly Lord Howe Atoll, not to be confused with Lord Howe Island) is an atoll in the Solomon Islands, and one of the largest atolls on earth.

It is inhabited by a Polynesian community of about 2,400 people, who speak the Ontong Java language.