Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
At the absolute extreme, if everyone died in and around the cities likely to be hit (Sydney, Newcastle, Woolongong, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne) it would be around 46% - and that's if EVERYONE died.
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I think that Australian cities tend to be a bit more spread out than in many other places. Living on a quarter acre block is the goal of many if not most urban Australians and the numbers of people who live in high density housing are quite low. And the viable targets tend not to be in the city centres. So for instance here in Perth you would need two nukes to directly hit the two most valuable target areas, the Kwinana fuel refinery and the Garden Island Naval Base next door to it south of Perth, and the Pearce Air Base north of Perth. Hitting either of those would barely scratch the edges of the Perth metropolitan area. Alternatively I guess a high altitude nuke could be detonated directly over Perth, destroying electrical/electronic infrastructure of the naval and air bases as well as the whole city. Either way population loss from the initial strike would be minimal. Many more deaths might result indirectly though I guess.