Wales is a colony.
The colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901 , when it became a State in the federal Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901 . At its greatest extent , the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of New South Wales , Queensland , Victoria , Tasmania , and South Australia , as well as New Zealand . Wales ( [ ˈweɪlz ] Cymru [ ˈkəm.rɨ ] ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain .