The Northern Territory is a federal Australian territory in north-central Australia. It is the third largest Australian federal division with an area of 1348094.3 km2 but the least populous with 245,929 inhabitants as at June 2019. The Northern Territory is divided administratively into 17 Local government areas (LGAs) generally known as Councils who are responsible for providing local government services.

Area types

As of 1 July 2008, there were two classifications of local government in the Northern Territory: The Northern Territory was unusual as a comparatively large share of the territory's population lived in unincorporated areas. In 2006, prior to the reorganisation of local government areas in the territory, 92 percent of the land area (1237999 km2 out of 1349130 km2) with 16 percent of the population (30,523 out of 192,898), was unincorporated. This anomaly is due to the territory's very low population density, just 0.16 people per km2 (0.099 people per sq mi). Most of the unincorporated areas disappeared as a result of local government reform in 2008. The area remaining unincorporated is 19790 km2, 1.47 percent of the total, and contains 3.0 percent of the population in June 2019. By comparison, in the only other states or territories in Australia with unincorporated areas, only 0.02% of the population of New South Wales, 0.002% of Victoria's population and 0.6% of the population of South Australia, live in unincorporated areas.

Current local government areas

Former local government areas

Prior to 1 July 2008, local government areas in the Northern Territory were classified as either :

Towns

Community Government Councils

Incorporated Communities

Unincorporated Area

Sources