Usage
Counties have since gone out of use in Australia, and are rarely used or even known by most of the population today. Part of the reason is that counties are based on the size of land, rather than population, so in a large country where most of the population live in cities on the coast while the countryside has a very low population density, they have little relevance. The counties which contain the capital cities have millions of people, while those in remote areas have a very small population. The County of Adelaide, for instance, has a larger population than all the other counties in South Australia combined. Another reason is that many of the counties' borders follow rivers, having been proclaimed before settlements developed, which means that towns which typically grow up on rivers often find themselves in more than one county. Wangaratta, for instance, is located at the junction of the Ovens and King rivers, and is thus in three counties; Moira, Delatite and Bogong.
Some of the county names live on by being the same name of present-day local government areas, general region names, towns or establishments in the area. For instance, the current Shire of Plantagenet and Shire of Victoria Plains in Western Australia are in the similar area to the County of Plantagenet and County of Victoria, respectively. The modern city of Devonport in Tasmania is located in the County of Devon. Some regions do promote the county name, such as Argyle County, while the County of Cadell (roughly in the Murray Shire area) is still the name for a vineyard and motor lodge in the same area.
Read more about this topic: Lands Administrative Divisions Of Australia
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