Editing Governor of New South Wales (section)

==History==
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[[File:View of Botany Bay.jpg|thumb|The First Fleet in Botany Bay at voyage's end in 1788. Its arrival marked the establishment of the colony of New South Wales and the office of the governor.]]
Aside from the Crown itself, the office of Governor of New South Wales is the oldest constitutional office in Australia. Captain [[Arthur Phillip]] assumed office as Governor of New South Wales on 7 February 1788, when the Colony of New South Wales, the first British settlement in Australia, was formally proclaimed. The early colonial governors held an almost autocratic power due to the distance from and poor communications with Great Britain, until 1824 when the [[New South Wales Legislative Council]], Australia's first legislative body, was appointed to advise the governor.<ref>NSW Parliament. [http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/web/common.nsf/key/LCHistory History of the Legislative Council] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060409150820/http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/web/common.nsf/key/LCHistory |date=9 April 2006 }}. Retrieved 10 August 2007.</ref>

Between 1850 and 1861, the Governor of New South Wales was titled Governor-General, in an early attempt at federalism imposed by [[Henry Grey, 3rd Earl Grey|Earl Grey]]. All communication between the Australian colonies and the British Government was meant to go through the Governor-General, and the other colonies had lieutenant-Governors. As South Australia (1836), [[Tasmania]] (January 1855) and [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]] (May 1855) obtained responsible government, their lieutenant-Governors were replaced by Governors. Although he had ceased acting as a Governor-General, Sir [[William Denison]] retained the title until his retirement in 1861.<ref>{{cite book |last=Twomey |first=Anne |author-link=Anne Twomey (academic) |title=The chameleon Crown: The Queen and her Australian governors |url=http://www.federationpress.com.au/bookstore/book.asp?isbn=9781862876293 |year=2006 |publisher=The Federation Press |location=Sydney |isbn=978-1-86287-629-3 |access-date=10 August 2007 |archive-date=20 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210320114258/https://www.federationpress.com.au/bookstore/book.asp?isbn=9781862876293 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The six British colonies in Australia joined to form the [[Commonwealth of Australia]] in 1901. New South Wales and the other colonies became states in the federal system under the [[Constitution of Australia]]. In 1902, the ''New South Wales Constitution Act'' 1902 confirmed the modern system of government of New South Wales as a state. Like the new federal [[Governor-General of Australia|Governor-General]] and the other state governors, in the first years after federation, the governor of New South Wales continued to act both in their constitutional role, and as a liaison between the local government and the imperial government in [[London]]. 

[[File:Australia Act 1986.jpg|thumb|right|The copy of the Australia Act 1986 (UK) bearing the Queen's signature, now displayed in [[Canberra]]]]
In 1942, the Commonwealth of Australia passed the ''[[Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942]]'', which rendered Australia dominion status under the [[Statute of Westminster 1931|Statute of Westminster]], and while Australia and Britain share the same person as monarch, that person acts in a distinct capacity when acting as the monarch of each dominion. The convention that the monarch acts in respect of Australian affairs on the advice of his or her Australian ministers, rather than his or her British ministers, became enshrined in law.{{citation needed|date=March 2015}} For New South Wales however, because the Statute of Westminster did not disturb the constitutional arrangements of the Australian states, the governor remained (at least formally) in New South Wales the representative of the British monarch. This arrangement seemed incongruous with the Commonwealth of Australia's independent dominion status conferred by the Statute of Westminster, and with the federal structure.

After much negotiation between the federal and state governments of Australia, the British government and [[Buckingham Palace]], the ''[[Australia Act 1986]]'' removed any remaining constitutional roles of the British monarch and British government in the Australian states, and established that the governor of New South Wales (along with the other state governors) was the direct, personal representative of the Australian monarch, and not the British monarch or the British government, nor the governor-general of Australia or the Australian federal government.