OT: Australia, safest continent on the planet

[Targan]

I've seen some crazy, crazy shit during my times in the great Australian outback. To be honest most Australians aren't rough, tough supermen, but that's because most Australians are born and bred city dwellers who don't have a clue about even the basics of outback survival. People who were born and raised in the bush, they're a different breed. I feel I can say these things without bias, because I'm a city dweller who has spent time in the bush and been around real outback people and spent time as an Army Reservist. I won't say I could just walk off into the Never-Never and survive for years, but I wouldn't be one of the typical Australian city people who would literally die within two days of being dumped in the middle of nowhere.

People from other countries who have spent time in similar environments would probably do ok at least for a while in the Australian outback, particularly if they asked the right questions of those with experience before they went bush. Australia has a huge variety of climate types too, so there's no one-size-fits-all skill set that will get you through. The south coast of Western Australia, large parts of Tasmania (where Legbreaker lives) and parts of Victoria have cold, wet forests and woodlands and particularly in the case of Tasmania there's some pretty rugged terrain. Exposure would be the biggest problem in those regions. As is widely known, large parts of Australia are at least arid, at worst full-blown desert, out there if you can't find water you're doomed real fast. Then up in the tropical zone there's thousands and thousands of klicks of coastal mangrove, swamps and tropical rainforest. Anywhere near bodies of water up there you have to be really careful about crocodiles, but there are other things that'll have a crack at you too, including feral razorback pigs and water buffalo. And of course all across the nation there are any number of venomous snakes and spiders that don't leave you with much time to seek treatment before you die in misery and agony.

Every year there are cases of people that drive out into the middle of bloody nowhere, woefully under-prepared, and then their vehicle breaks down and the silly buggers start walking. A day, a week, a month later the Aboriginal trackers eventually find their corpses, in various stages of desiccation, pitifully curled up under a bush or whatever shade they could find.

[Legbreaker]

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[TrailerParkJawa]

Originally Posted by Targan

I've seen some crazy, crazy shit during my times in the great Australian outback. To be honest most Australians aren't rough, tough supermen, but that's because most Australians are born and bred city dwellers who don't have a clue about even the basics of outback survival. People who were born and raised in the bush, they're a different breed. I feel I can say these things without bias, because I'm a city dweller who has spent time in the bush and been around real outback people and spent time as an Army Reservist. I won't say I could just walk off into the Never-Never and survive for years, but I wouldn't be one of the typical Australian city people who would literally die within two days of being dumped in the middle of nowhere.

I just got back from a vacation in Australia. I visited Melbourne, Cairns, and Sydney. What I observed matches what you say. Most Australians are city or suburb types. The country seems to be a bit of a nanny-state with warning sings that border on ridiculous; there was a sign on a strip club warning that you might see situations inside that may offend. Like wow?!

My dad spent a lot of time in Alice Springs in the 90's and his descriptions of the folks that live there match people you might meet in Nevada or rural America. Tough folks that mind their own business..

Overall though I really liked it. Melbourne and Cairns in particular. I was stuck however that in the T2K timeline some of these cities probably got nuked and it represents most of Australias actually population.

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by TrailerParkJawa

I was stuck however that in the T2K timeline some of these cities probably got nuked and it represents most of Australias actually population.

Not really a lot of targets here in Aus though www.forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=1254
You are right though about the population - something like 80% live in urban areas, 60% (approx) live in the capital cities where the majority of likely targets are located.
On the positive side of the coin however, the cities are spread over a wide area - it would take probably a dozen warheads to adequately cover just Sydney (takes up to two hours to drive from one side to the other, a lot longer in peak traffic times).

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Yeah, we tend to build cities horizontally more so than vertically so even though you'll find plenty of commercial (and even industrial buildings) rising dozens of floors into the sky, there's never been as much of a desire for masses of high rise apartments and so on. They do exist, but not clumped together like the "estates" or "projects" found in the UK and USA respectively.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

Yeah, we tend to build cities horizontally more so than vertically so even though you'll find plenty of commercial (and even industrial buildings) rising dozens of floors into the sky, there's never been as much of a desire for masses of high rise apartments and so on. They do exist, but not clumped together like the "estates" or "projects" found in the UK and USA respectively.

True, but we're just starting to see a concerted effort by state governments to promote "urban infill" and higher-density living. Here in Perth inner city living has been heavily promoted over the last 10 years (as I'm sure you've seen, Stainless) with accompanying highrise, but obviously we're still a long way from the kind of population densities seen in our nearby Asian neighbour nations. I live just outside of the inner city in a two-storey townhouse myself.

[Legbreaker]

And this is BEFORE the post nuke, radiation induced mutations...
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[ChalkLine]

I've just moved from Tasmania to Queensland. It's hot here, we're getting regular 35ºc weeks and it's only spring. It's going to be a bumper year for bush fires. However the snakes here are impressive. I thought the filthiest place for snakes was south west West Australia (in the salt swamps there's a tiger snake for every square metre and yours truly went through it on foot back in 2004) but I've been told that's nothing compared to near waterway here