Australia

Australia, officially the Federal Republic of Australia, is the largest country located within Oceania and occupied the entire Australian continent, up until the secession of West Australia.

History

1990s - 2020

In 1993, the Australian government attempted to recognize Aboriginal ownership of traditional land, but the corporations that wanted to own the land themselves pressured them into privatizing the land. When the Crash of '94 occurred, it was seen by Australia as just the same decline that the country had been going down since the mid-80s.

In the year 2000, Orbital Air and the European Space Agency teamed up to purchase most of Cape York in order to build a spaceport there, cutting down much of the rainforest. The same year, the Olympic Games in Sydney were boycotted due to the Aboriginal land rights situation.

The turning point for Australia came in 2001 when the Martial Law Authority deposed the monarchy of the United Kingdom. This eliminated the last opposition towards making Australia a full republic, and a new constitution was written. This constitution did nothing to remedy the Aboriginal land ownership situation, and several Aboriginal nationalist fronts started popping up over the next decade.

West Australia, on the other hand, seceded from the country, as they believed they were self-sufficient. The Federal Republic refused to acknowledge them as a sovereign nation and initiated a trade embargo. A battle between the Federal Australians, West Australians (now with Arasaka backing them), and Indonesians occurred the same year.

In 2002, a virus killed off the entire wheat supply in mainland Australia, with Tasmania being quarantined to prevent the virus from spreading. An entrepreneur named Angus Youngblood, predicting the development of disease-resistant crops, began buying up Australian farmland for cheap.

During the First Orbital War in 2008, the lunar city of Tycho launched several rocks at the earth to destroy the United States's space communication network. They attempted to destroy the relay at Pine Gap in Australia, but accidentally hit the town of Alice Springs, resulting in 25,000 deaths.

In 2009, Indonesia invaded the former Australian colony of Papua New Guinea. The Australians began diplomatic negotiations with the country, but positioned troops on their north coast in case war broke out.

In 2011, Militech's experimental nanotech designed to clean up radiation grew out of control in Maralinga. No ready solutions were come up with for the potentially dangerous growth in the desert.

In 2013, Angus Youngblood sold his farmland to Petrochem for CHOOH2 production in exchange for a seat on the board of directors. The company proceeded to buy up more farmland in New South Wales.

In 2016, riots occurred in Adelaide as drought and pollution destroyed their water supply. Arasaka was tasked with developing a desalination system.

By 2020, most of the Federal Republic of Australia was divided between foreign-owned corporations and violent ethnic groups.

2021 - 2077

In 2043, Ziggurat opened offices in Melbourne with the intent of penetrating the Australian market but was met stiff resistance from local competitors.

In 2068, A major bushfire wiped out all but one of Australia's remaining wild koala populations. The last surviving koala was found on Sydney's outskirts, and was appropriately named "Omega," meaning "last" or "the end" in the Greek alphabet. Authorities originally planned to euthanize Omega, but this was countermanded in response to citizen protests. Omega became a popular tourist draw, and was allowed to stay in the wild under careful supervision.

In 2073, Decker, Tanaka & Rogers tripled the amount of airship fuel consumption to satisfy Australia's growing need for plastic. Being an island nation, but just as wasteful as all First World nations in the 2070s necessitated this following all naval shipping being no longer considered safe.

In 2077, the koala named Omega died of natural causes, making species effectively extinct.

Government

The Federal Republic has a three-layer system based on the Westminster System. They’re led by a parliament which elect a Prime Minister based on their majority, with a president being elected by independently and having a mostly ceremonial role.

Its popularly speculated that companies such as Petrochem and Orbital Air had massive influence over the parliament, particularly when it came to foreign trade.

Law and Order

In Australia, it is illegal to own fully automatic weapons, grenades, combat Cyberware, and EMPs, though all of them are readily available on the black market. To legally purchase a gun, a license is needed, but the gun doesn’t have to be registered. A 20% import tax is placed on all weapons and cyberware, with smuggling them also being a big criminal industry.

Culture

Australians love sports, particularly football. Unlike other countries, Cyberware is fully banned during these events, but they make up for it with their unabashed brutality on the field, and performance-enhancing Drugs are still legal. Particularly violent players are banned from future games, and since 2007 umpires have had to carry tasers. There is a growing interest in cyberleague football amongst the younger generations.

Beer is also incredibly popular in the country, with each territory having their own favorite brand, and with Smash being seen as pointless street-trash.

Australia was once a very ethnically diverse place, but the political unrest and food shortages in the 90s quickly sparked racial conflict. By 2020, these conflicts were thankfully rare, but there were still certain areas you shouldn’t go if you’re a certain race.

Major Cities

• Adelaide
• Canberra
• Brisbane
• Cape York Spaceport
• Darwin
• Hobart
• Kennettsville
• Sydney
• Melbourne
• Republic of West Australia
• Surfers Paradise

Corporations

Australian Corporations

• Courier Mail
• Cyberleague Football
• TetraCorp
• West Australia Oil

International Corporations

• Arasaka
• Biotechnica
• Orbital Air
• Petrochem
• Ziggurat

Notable Residents

• Angus Youngblood - Sydney, Petrochem Corpo
• Brian Goodchild - Melbourne, unemployed
• Curtis Waddington Sydney, unemployed
• Jeffrey Kennett - Victoria, Former Premier
• Paul McCormack - Perth, West Australia Oil Corpo
• Pemulwy Ngangawilla - Nomad
• Sheila Kirkpatrick - Perth, Hairdresser
• Stanley Death - Melbourne, Solo
• "Fingers" Malone - Adelaide, Fixer

Gallery

• 
  The Panzer "Queensland Thunderbolt"
• 
  Omega the last Koala
• 
  The "Fei Lien 100 Aerodyne" manufactured by TetraCorp.