It has produced some actors, like Chris Hemsworth as Thor, and some writers, like John Birmingham and Greg Egan. In Harry Turtledove’s WorldWar series, it is left as one of the vast tracts of land occupied by alien invaders, and in Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past series, it is left as the sole redoubt of a decimated humanity. In military fiction, the Australian armed forces join their American, Canadian, and European allies in fighting whatever threat has reared its ugly head. In alternate history, and indeed most speculative fiction, Australia is forgotten. Robert Hughes’ magnificent book The Fatal Shore: the Epic of Australia’s Founding is one of my favorite history books ever written. I will admit that some of my own interest in the country is in how it parallels America, my own homeland, as so much of its historical development is in the same vein. It is stereotyped as a land of murderous wildlife and eccentric people who love shrimp and danger. For most of us in the Anglosphere, Australia is reduced to something akin to a cross between Britain and America, a ‘British Texas,’ to quote one of the common internet memes.
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