Northern Territory

Northern Territory is not counted as one of the Australian states, but rather as a federal territory. It is the third largest state/territory in Australia in area, but it is sparsely populated with only 215,000 people. The territory was inhabited by Indigenous Australians 40,000 years ago, and although Europeans discovered the coast in the late 1700s, no successful attempt at settling the region until Port Darwin was established in 1869. Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory and unlike most other Australian states the population of Northern Territory is not concentrated around the coast, but is focused around the Stuart Highway . People for the Northern Territory are colloquially known as 'Territorians'. The main industry that the Northern Territory relies on now is tourism, but the region has a long history of both farming and mining. However, the rough environment meant that farmers in the Northern Territory often chose to focus on livestock, rather than crop farming.