The colloquial Australian-English expression Ma State, and its abbreviated form Ma, designate the State of New South Wales.

Here, ma means mother, and the expression alludes to New South Wales as the ‘mother’ colony, i.e., the first colony that Britain founded in Australia.

Significantly, the texts containing the earliest occurrences that I have found of the expression Ma State, and of its abbreviated form Ma, are from The Bulletin, an Australian weekly magazine published in Sydney, New South Wales.

In An Australasian Wander-Year (London: Martin Secker, 1914), the Welsh author Herbert Millingchamp Vaughan (1870-1948) explained not only the origin of Ma State, but also The Bulletin’s role in promoting Australian English [Chapter 3, page 61]:

The journalese of this weekly paper is like nothing save itself, since the idioms are not borrowed either from British or American speech, but may be regarded as a peculiar brand of Austral-English. The curious method of its nomenclature will certainly puzzle and irritate the reader in his early attempts to appreciate the Bulletin. The many nicknames used will require elucidation, so that the stranger must learn in due course from some Australian friend that, amongst the many cryptic phrases and names, “Bananaland” stands for Queensland; “Maoriland” for New Zealand; the “Apple Isle” for Tasmania, on account of its large export of apples; whilst the mother colony of New South Wales is often referred to as the “Ma State.” “Fog Land” often denotes the British Isles, and the “Big Smoke” stands for London.

The earliest occurrences that I have found of the expression Ma State, and of its abbreviation Ma, are as follows, in chronological order:

1-: From Joe’s Cup, published in The Bulletin (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Thursday 7^th December 1905 [Vol. 26, No. 1,347, page 6, column 2]:

Last week a small incident happened in the Senate. The vote for the maintenance of the Governor-General’s residence at Sydney was cut down—or rather the Senate suggested that it should be cut down—as a hint towards its final abolition. Hitherto Australia has been put to the expense of maintaining Government House, Sydney, as an extra or superfluous residence for the Governor-General. He doesn’t want it, and he hardly ever has time to use it. When Parliament is sitting he requires to be most of the time in Melbourne, and when N.S. Wales allows the Federal capital to be fixed he will have to be at the Federal capital. The rest of the time he wanders round a good deal, and he has never shown the least desire to be burdened with an extra household at Sydney. But some Sydney politicians declared that the poor old Ma State would be wronged and blighted if the Governor-General didn’t have a residence there, which was much of a piece with the same crowd’s demand that the first Governor-General, when on his way out here, should not be allowed to stretch his legs ashore at Perth, or Albany, or Adelaide, or Melbourne, because the poor old Ma State would be grievously slighted and struck by the left hook of opprobrium unless his Ex.’s boot-sole first touched Australian soil in Sydney. No other State demanded that the Governor-General should have a costly and superfluous extra residence on its territory, but the Cabbage-Tree Mob of Sydney politicians makes N.S. W. quite unlike every other State. So N.S. W. turned out its State Governor to make room for the greater Excellency who, as a rule, didn’t come, and both the State and the Commonwealth paid a good deal of money needlessly over the matter. At the same time the present N.S. W. Government has threatened more than once to resume possession of Government House, and to eject the Governor-General who isn’t there, so apparently it doesn’t really want him after all. In fact, it has gone so far as to give notice of ejection. At last the Senate grew tired and proposed to drop the unsatisfactory arrangement. It wasn’t a “Victorian conspiracy” this time; the only Victorian who voted gave his voice for keeping on the payment for the empty house rather than aggravate the poor old Ma State. But a combination from the other four States reckoned that it was time to save a little money. On being appealed to later on not to aggravate the poor old Ma State, the combination thought better of it and withdrew its suggestion, and the affair dropped.

2-: From Political Points, published in The Bulletin (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Thursday 21^st December 1905 [Vol. 26, No. 1,349, page 24, column 1]:

About the most humorous thing on record is the cool effrontery with which the Carruthers people chirp that under their guidance N.S.W. is balanced on the apex of prosperity, while they are prepared to prove that, through Federal misgovernment, the Ma State is wallowing in the slough of despond.

3-: From Sporting Notions, published in The Bulletin (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Thursday 21^st December 1905 [Vol. 26, No. 1,349, page 26, column 3]:

“B” writes: The defection—forced and otherwise—of a large number of those players who have figured of late in interstate cricket matches on the side of the Ma State sets one soliloquising. For the second time of late years during the long rivalry between N.S.W. and Victoria the tally is level—37 each, and of the last eight matches, Ma has won seven. This run of success has been due largely to S. Gregory (once called Syd.), W. P. Howell (used to be Bill), Kelly, Hopkins, Trumper (the “Victor” of fame), and Duff, former idols whose omission this year has been hailed with glee. Should the Ma State get in front this season the honor will be for the new brigade. I am a bit of a new brigader myself, but pause to shed a tear for the boys of the old brigade, who, as my friend Ginger on the hill remarks, were a bosker push.

The expression Ma State gave rise to Ma Stater, designating a native or inhabitant of New South Wales. The earliest occurrences of Ma Stater that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:

1-: From an interview of the Australian cartoonist Mick Paul (Oswald E. Paul – 1887-1945), published in The Worker: Official Organ of the Trade Unions and Labor Organizations (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Thursday 18^th June 1908 [Vol. 17, No. 25, page 27, column 3]:

“Well, I was born in November, 1887. Bathurst was the historic spot: that’s the right phrase, isn’t it? Yes, New South Wales: I’m a Ma Stater. Poor State!

2-: From The Misfortunes of Ma, published in The Bulletin (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Thursday 6^th August 1908 [Vol. 29, No. 1,486, page 7, column 3]:

Above all others, the Commercial Bank of Sydney is the bank of N. S. Wales. […] The tribulations that have come to the Ma State as the result of Federation, with its “Victorian tyranny” and all the rest of it, must naturally have been felt more keenly by this unfortunate bank than by any other. […] In 110 half-years of fatness and freedom—110 half-years in which there was no Federal tyranny, no Commonwealth oppression, no Victorian conspiracy—this bank had built up a business which provided the shareholders, nearly all Ma Staters, with a profit of £51,509. Then followed 15 half-years of tyranny, conspiracy, etc., and the profits amounted to £90,973; so that the 15 half-years of oppression added almost as much to the profits as the 110 half-years of glorious freedom and fatness and alleged Freetrade had brought.

3-: From Sporting Notions, published in The Bulletin (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Thursday 3^rd September 1908 [Vol. 29, No. 1,490, page 28, column 2]—the noun Groper designates a native or inhabitant of Western Australia:

Last week saw the continuation and conclusion of the Australasian Football Carnival, to surprisingly good “houses,” all things considered. On Monday the All Blacks tackled and overthrew the Queenslanders, though the latter, under the tuition of a Vic. League expert, vastly improved on their first essay, and put up a hefty and exciting finish, being but 13 points to the bad when the bell rang—35 to 48. Next day the Ma Staters, likewise advantaged by instruction, gave the Gropers the cold shivers by scoring almost point for point up to half-time; but thereafter they faded away, and the record at the end was—Ma, 75 points; Westralia, 114 points. Wednesday witnessed the rout of the Maoris by Tassy (18 points to 84), and the capsizing of the Crow-eaters by Bent’s citizens (26 to 75). The case of the South Oss men was hopeless from the beginning; they plugged away towards the end with much vim, but their awful kicking wrecked what possible chance they might have had of retrieving the situation. In those 25min. they potted 10 behinds and nary a solitary goal, which feat was a lamentable and disastrous episode. On Thursday Ma collided with the Queenslanders, and placed 93 points on the board to Queensland’s 59; and on Saturday S. A. encountered Tasmania, and Vic. met Westralia.