Brisbane Line

Russia (excluding what was part of the Soviet Union, i.e. the Ukraine, Belorus, Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) : 17,098,242 sq km
1.8 times the size of the US. Is still THE largest single country in the world

Australia: 7,741,220 sq km (INCLUDING Lord Howe Island and Macquarie Island)
Is ONLY the 6th largest country in the world.

Australia is in no way larger "in terms of Land Mass" than what the Soviet Union was. Two Australia's don't even make a Russia.

As for invading, you only to sieze the population centres and production areas. Who cares about the blowflies in the outback? The size of the Militia retained in Australia compared to what Australia sent overseas shows there was true concern.

 

Ahhh..BUT we are an island...easy to pop over a border at night....far more difficult to creep up at sea...nothing to hide behind. Holds true to this day.

But the Japanese were showing plenty of attention to Australia (maybe a ruse to pull units back to Australia?)

 

Australia couldn't possibly patrol its entire coast in 1940. There was a true fear, and reason for all the myths/rumours of scouting parties being landed. Australia relied greatly on Aboriginal "eyes" to notice anything untoward. Given their long mistreatment, that in itself is a story.

Australia couldn't stop the boat immigrants arriving in the '70's, inspite of some pretty heavy handed methods (to put it mildly).

If it weren't for the Allies breaking the Japanese codes, they'd have little clue about the whereabouts of the bulk of the Japanese Navy, and a much larger amount of resources would've had to be allocated to just ensure that nothing had happened.

Consider the amount of effort to blanket out the bombing of Darwin, for decades.

 

Okay Slime...please explain the "long mistreatment" statement please. Be careful, facts only. (not sure about FNQ history, but i hope you arent talking about NT aboriginals)
We could've stopped the boats if they were military, we sank some boats, many we didnt...not sure what your point is here, this wasnt a military invasion. The appraoches to northern Australia are all ones needs to monitor...there is only about 4 paths a boat can take from the north...

 

Seriously? You don't have to search far...

"The lands of N.T. Aboriginal people were not subject to pastoral lease until after 1863 when South Australia undertook to exploit, by way of speculation and settlement, the carefully nurtured Aboriginal inheritance. As the lands of other people were taken up in Queensland (1840-1870), pressure mounted for the discovery of fresh fields of interest for speculative capital. The Crown's issuance of new leases in the Northern Territory during the 1870s created a trading frenzy, in which the lives of Aboriginal people were placed in the hands of gamblers in distant cities. This activity was followed by the actual invasion of cattle into the life-sustaining ecosystems. Tens of thousands of water-guzzling bullocks were driven into the arid N.T. lands. Their monopolization of the grasslands, under the careful supervision of their owners' rifles, was the beginning of a social and ecological disaster."
- See more at: http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/australia/forgotten-struggle-australias-aboriginal-people#sthash.VcfPypo8.dpuf

"Social Structural Choice
The emergent whitefella social structure in the Northern Territory in the latter part of the nineteenth century chose to replicate that of other parts of Australia: to consign the lives and rights of Aboriginal people to the scrap heap and to promote economic viability as the sole criterion for the application of justice. This choice ran through all levels of the frontier society. Getting away with black murder came to be regarded as the right of the frontiersman.
The Commonwealth government, formed in 1901, acquired the Northern Territory from a disillusioned South Australia ten years later. The reservation in favor of Aboriginal people continued to be written into the pastoral leases; it also continued to be ignored. Aboriginal people were either pressed into unpaid labor in return for rations, forced to move to government ration stations and reservations or sought refuge on the few cattle stations on which they were permitted to form communities. Aboriginal people were classified not as citizens but as wards of the state. They were expected to die off."
- See more at: http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/australia/forgotten-struggle-australias-aboriginal-people#sthash.VcfPypo8.dpuf

And more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/world/asia/13aborigine.html?_r=0
"In some states it was part of a policy to “breed out the color,” in the words of Cecil Cook, who held the title of chief protector of Aborigines in the Northern Territory in the 1930s."

http://www.humanrights.gov.au/timeline-history-separation-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-children-their-families-text
1911...
The Northern Territory Aboriginals Ordinance (Cth) gives the Chief Protector to assume ‘the care, custody or control of any Aboriginal or half caste if in his opinion it is necessary or desirable in the interests of the Aboriginal or half caste for him to do so’. The Aborigines Ordinance 1918 (Cth) extends the Chief Protector’s control even further.

Some pretty horrific stories hiding behind that simple line.

 

Your sources are NOT independent and have a line to push...just look at the language "invasion of cattle" (the same cattle that gave many Aboriginies an income and free food.) You are also talking about a long time ago, before the NT was self governed...its not NT people doing this. You'll find horrifying stories on ALL peoples (black, white, chinese etc) if you want to talk about that time period. And I mean all round the world. "In some states it was part of a policy to “breed out the color,” - SA and WA...Interestingly, the states that were and predominately still are "British" states, not Australian.
Today NT Aboriginals have there land back...yes that's right, they own it and can sell it too. In the NT it is not a requirement for Indigenous to work for a living, most being paid by the tax payer from cradle to grave. They have some 300 organisations purely for them (racist I know, but go figure) All health is paid for by others. Today in many remote communities...white NT people run a bus service to the people's homes, go into the house and take them to school, there they strip off and put a uniform on, the clothes they are wearing is washed and dried. They are given three meals a day, taught as much as they will learn and then put back into their clothes and driven back home...even though the "parents" are receiving extra money to make sure their kids go to school!
Believe me slime, if we want to swap horror stories, white man is left in the shade when it comes to abuse of Aboriginals, a little digging will show you DISGUSTING stories of what they do to each other...would you like to explain to our forum friends why we have an "intervention" and what the "children are sacred report" showed?
Thought not.

 

Stay on task please chums... :v4victory: There has been a wee tad too much meandering of late.

The Brisbane line is a serious subject area, one of interest to me, obviously.
I for one would like to see it progress substantially. Before and After photos... Relics.... photographic records of the period...

Lots to come yet hopefully. Please keep this out of the stump for me!

Tnx! :brushteeth:

 

Sorry Fred....Im done.

 

They most definitely do not have all their land back...

Two injustices do not make a justice. What other people have done to others is not really relevant to this discussion.

I'm sure the aboriginal's of NT in 1870's didn't ask the whites to come and fence off large tracts of land...

But as you bring it up talk to my Uncle, he worked with the Commonwealth, for Aboriginal ´wellfare, for 10 years, and quit in disgust. Political lies, and deliberate mismanagement left him under no illusions as to Political Australia's desire at the time to completely ignore the problems facing the aboriginal communities.

Rudd's apology, surely had a line to push.... but you don't comment on that.

It's obviously a sensitive issue, but the history speaks for itself. That Australia today has finally taken steps to redress past injustices does not exactly wash out the stain of what was done, but does show that the Australians of today accept that the representatives of Australian Federal and state governments in the past have made some very serious mistakes, for a variety of reasons.

We were discussing the situation as it was in 1940, not 2013...

 

true, my apologies, your post come as I was typing.