AH Challenge: where women glow and men plunder

Just listening to the 80s nostalgia playlist on Youtube, and I thought: what's this about running and taking cover? [1] Is Australia to be feared?

So, with PODs after, say, 1606 (so no cribbing from Jared :p )wank Australia as much as possible. Secondary requirement: in TL, people refer to Australia as "the land of plenty" un-ironically.

Best of luck, mates!


[1] http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/menatwork/downunder.html
 
Just thinking in very broad outlines here: it'll probably help if Australia and New Zealand are united. Something that is still recognisably 'like' moder Australia could become much more imperial if we could have:

- no Meiji
- no Japanese involvement in WWI (or equivalent - or maybe just no WWI)
- a slower decline or fragmentation of the British Empire, with colonial mindsets remaining acceptable for longer.

Australia, a white Dominion with support from London both militarily and financially, could easily take over Britain's interests in the Pacific and bits of Southeast Asia. If India devolves, it may be considered preferable for Malaysia to end up in Australia's sphere of influence rather than India's. With that position, the other European colonial powers will end up seeing their holdings (Indonesia, New Guinea, Melanesian and Polynesian islands) slip into its ambit. Quite possibly, this Australia would also pursue maritime interests in continental Southeast Asia, 'protect' Hong Kong, or otherwise acquire interests in China.

With this setup, Australia would maintain a large navy and professional army and charge an 'empire premium' to keep the peace in its backyard. In effect, it would treat the western Pacific the way the USA historically have treated Central America. If there is a strong US presence in the region, it would function as an ally. If not, it could effectively fill the vacuum and even inherit the Philippines and Hawaii. The wealth thus generated, combined with Australia's ample resources, could easily justify spealing of a 'land of plewnty'. Imagine a comprehensive welfare state underpinned by a racial ideology, where white Australians are assured of a basic first-world standard of living and veterans of the Empire given pensions, education benefits and plum jobs in governmernt and industry. Heavy defense spending supports the system (veterans are given preferential employment in the navy yards, arms factories, and government departments). The Australia ideology would emphasise healthy outdoorsmanship, athletic prowess, scientific learning and racial pride.
 
1627 Thijssen sails east for a few more days, discovering the mouth of the Murray River
1642 Tasman sails east along the latitude noted by Thijssen, sighting land in early November, the height of the southern spring. Tasman charts the south eastern coast of mainland Australia, and when pulling into the Fitzroy river to collect fresh water and conduct minor repairs he explores the improved wetland of the Condah swamp, describing it as a town with canals.
1699 1200 Scottish settlers arrive at Portland as part of the Darrien Scheme, naming it New Edinburgh
1700 second fleet of 1000 Scottish settlers arrive in New Edinburgh
1701, some Scottish settlers move to Condah swamp, taking up residence in huts vacated by epidemics of disease, and take up eel farming in the style of the local Koories.
1721 Gold is discovered, adding to the wealth of the colony and causing an influx of immigrants
1750 The original Scottish settlement has expanded on the back of whaling and sealing and greatly assisted in the early years by eel farming. Settlement had grown along rivers and around Port Phillip Bay. Further settlements have grown up around the Australian coastline.
1805 The British, after the naval supremacy due to the battle of Trafalgar begin to reduce all non British settlements on the Australian continent. The entire continent comes under British rule by the time of Waterloo in 1815
1867 Australia becomes a Dominion
1922 Australia allocated 2 capital ships of its own in the Washington Naval Conference
1968 in one of the final missions of Operation Rolling Thunder RAAF Victor B3 bombers destroy the Paul Doumer bridge in Nth Vietnam.
 
1627 Thijssen sails east for a few more days, discovering the mouth of the Murray River
1642 Tasman sails east along the latitude noted by Thijssen, sighting land in early November, the height of the southern spring. Tasman charts the south eastern coast of mainland Australia, and when pulling into the Fitzroy river to collect fresh water and conduct minor repairs he explores the improved wetland of the Condah swamp, describing it as a town with canals.
1699 1200 Scottish settlers arrive at Portland as part of the Darrien Scheme, naming it New Edinburgh
1700 second fleet of 1000 Scottish settlers arrive in New Edinburgh
1701, some Scottish settlers move to Condah swamp, taking up residence in huts vacated by epidemics of disease, and take up eel farming in the style of the local Koories.
1721 Gold is discovered, adding to the wealth of the colony and causing an influx of immigrants
1750 The original Scottish settlement has expanded on the back of whaling and sealing and greatly assisted in the early years by eel farming. Settlement had grown along rivers and around Port Phillip Bay. Further settlements have grown up around the Australian coastline.
1805 The British, after the naval supremacy due to the battle of Trafalgar begin to reduce all non British settlements on the Australian continent. The entire continent comes under British rule by the time of Waterloo in 1815
1867 Australia becomes a Dominion
1922 Australia allocated 2 capital ships of its own in the Washington Naval Conference
1968 in one of the final missions of Operation Rolling Thunder RAAF Victor B3 bombers destroy the Paul Doumer bridge in Nth Vietnam.

Because F##k Butterflies.
 
I don't think a tiny Scottish colony on the other side of the world will have massive butterfly effects for largely deterministic events such as the Anglo-Scot Union, French Revolution and Industrial Revolution.
 
Paul Dormer Bridge? Operation Rolling Thunder? Victor B3 bombers? These are hardly deterministic things. :p
 
Paul Dormer Bridge? Operation Rolling Thunder? Victor B3 bombers? These are hardly deterministic things. :p

No, but they are wanky, which is what the OP asked for.

Even with a 1606-1699 start Australia can only develop so far, there are hard limits on population growth due to soil fertility and water issues as well as transportation technology. Australia can only be wanked so far and I think it would remain a middle power, probably similar to Canada but with worse strategic circumstances, hence the Victor B3s and participation in Vietnam.
 
I don't think a tiny Scottish colony on the other side of the world will have massive butterfly effects for largely deterministic events such as the Anglo-Scot Union, French Revolution and Industrial Revolution.

Oh yes it would.

To a great extent the 1707 union was caused by the horrendous failure of the Darien Scheme and Scotland's consequent financial difficulties, which made a union with England a desirable prospect. This "tiny Scottish colony on the other side of the world" not failing horrendously means that the alt-Darien Scheme doesn't fail horrendously, so those financial difficulties aren't there.

That's a PoD virtually tailor-made to butterfly away the union between England and Scotland. If there exists no single kingdom ruling the whole of Great Britain, the history of the 18th century is very different. The French Revolution was arguably caused, in part, by the bankruptcy of the Kingdom of France's government due to spending so much money on essentially winning the American Revolutionary War for the Americans; in turn the American Revolution was arguably triggered by the acquisitions of Great Britain's victory in the Seven Years' War (since those acquisitions directly triggered the Proclamation Line and meant the removal of the French and French-backed Native American threats that made the British presence in North America a matter of necessary protection for the colonists). If there is no such kingdom as Great Britain, the entire Seven Years' War is almost certainly butterflied; there might be some alternate conflict that shares some similarities with OTL's Seven Years' War, but not the actual thing.

This might actually make a good TL, but it's certainly not going to be very convergent to OTL at all. AussieHawker is absolutely right.
 
I'm happy for someone to write a TL, I just slapped that up based on a slightly different Dutch exploration.

I was under the impression that the Darrien scheme was the straw that broke the camels back with regards to opposition to Anglo-Scot union, not the catalyst for it.
 
I'm happy for someone to write a TL, I just slapped that up based on a slightly different Dutch exploration.

Fair enough.

I was under the impression that the Darrien scheme was the straw that broke the camels back with regards to opposition to Anglo-Scot union, not the catalyst for it.

The Darien Scheme really did a number on Scottish finances, because so much of Scotland's capital was invested in it (because of Scotland's very small population, it didn't have that much capital) and then it failed completely. That left some ridiculously high proportion of the people in Scotland bankrupt. Without Scotland needing to go to England hat in hand, Scottish agreement to a union between England and Scotland is rather less likely.

Quite possibly the union might have happened anyway (perhaps voluntarily, perhaps through English conquest of Scotland), but it would happen rather differently if it occurred in a different manner.

I'd argue that the Darien Scheme is a crucial part of the history of Great Britain.
 
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