Counties were used since the earliest British settlement in Australia, with the County of Cumberland proclaimed by Captain Phillip on 4 June 1788. In 1804 Governor King divided Van Diemen's Land into two counties; Buckingham in the south and Cornwall in the north. The parishes date to the surveys conducted after 1825, with the instructions given to Governor Brisbane on 23 Jun 1825 to divide the colony into counties, hundreds and parishes. At this time there were five counties already proclaimed in New South Wales: Cumberland, Westmoreland, Camden, Argyle and Northumberland. The Nineteen Counties in south-eastern New South Wales were the limits of location of the colony in a period after 1829, with the area outside them originally divided into districts, and later also into counties and parishes. Counties were established soon after the foundation of other Australian colonies.