A Very Australian Civil War

[winterborn]

Okay, I was aware one of our local fascists back in the day preemptively cut the ribbon for the opening of the Sydney Harbor Bridge, but I wasnt aware they also plotted to kidnap the Prime Minister and take over the country. The New Guard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Guard
while obviously not having much numbers ITRL, could be beefed up in a fictional world and take over. West Australia tries to break away, aboriginal uprisings, communists, laborites, Anglicans, independantly minded country folk, organised crime, etc...

Its got me thinking, hmmmmmm

Matt

[Geudens]

Here we go again...    Don't forget that - according to the sourcebook - Canada, Australia etc are no longer dominions, so - if the Aussy fascists would try a coup - Mosly might well sent reinforcements (B.U.F. and regulars) to reclaim Down Under for the crown...

Rudi

[winterborn]

One of the tenets of the New Guard was absolute loyalty to the crown, so Mosley would proly try and support them, as much as possible. Or, alternatively, their coup is put down, and they flee to ol blighty and now Mosley has some australian supporters he can blame atrocities on.

Matt

[TadPortly]

I suspect with all the problems at home, all Mosely could do is offer political support and the odd adviser - although he could try to order the RN stationed in that part of the world (Singapore, Falklands etc) to help.

I suspect you might also find the Japanese willing to get involved given their interests in the region.  Would be interesting to consider who they might support - the Royalists with promises not to halt Japanese expansion (plus it sort of supports their national persona of loyalty to the head of state), or other causes in an attempt to destabilise the country and aid their expansion aims. 

[argsilverson]

I suspect you might also find the Japanese willing to get involved given their interests in the region.  Would be interesting to consider who they might support - the Royalists with promises not to halt Japanese expansion (plus it sort of supports their national persona of loyalty to the head of state), or other causes in an attempt to destabilise the country and aid their expansion aims. 

Sorry folks I have been mixed up with all these ECW threads and sometimes it is difficult to follow up all the plots. But I have a question.
Since Australia/Canada are not anymore dominions then they are independent States. So, Whom the royalist support??

[carlos marighela]

 

Sorry folks I have been mixed up with all these ECW threads and sometimes it is difficult to follow up all the plots. But I have a question.
Since Australia/Canada are not anymore dominions then they are independent States. So, Whom the royalist support??
[/quote]

Independent states whose head of state remained/s the British Monarch.

Winterborn I suggest you track down a copy of Michael Cathcart's Defending the National Tuck Shop which covers the New Guard and the supposed secret 'White Army/ White Guard'. Amusing read.

De Groot and chums were a rather silly bunch in reality. Some gaming mates and I gave some thought to this a few years ago. I just wanted a pretext to use an actual historical slogan of the time on the banner of a NSW workers militia. 'Lang, Greater than Lenin!'   

[Doomhippie]

The interesting thing about Australia is the huge variety of cultures and climates. You can play almost any kind of political or thnic group in almost any kind of environment. Combine this with the mystical forces of the aborigines and you have the perfect pulp setting. Way to go!

[carlos marighela]

By the way Western Australia (or at least quite a few of the dingbats who live there)  has traditionally threatened to secede, on average about every 5-10 years, depending on where they are in the boom-bust cycle. It was a popular thing under Charley Court and his even dopier son used to mention it whenever he felt ill at ease in Hawkes presence.

Personally I think it would be a fabulous idea, as long as the place could be towed out mid ocean and used as a naval gunnery target. It's all it's really fit for, except for mining really. Probably a useful argument in favour of the existence of a benign God, putting Perth as far away from anywhere else as possible, so it can be more readily ignored.

[warhammergrimace]

I'm really  enjoying reading these threads, the possibility for a global campaign, could be really interesting.

[carlos marighela]

The interesting thing about Australia is the huge variety of cultures and climates. You can play almost any kind of political or thnic group in almost any kind of environment. Combine this with the mystical forces of the aborigines and you have the perfect pulp setting. Way to go!

Not so much in the 1930's when it was overwhelmingly Anglo- Celtic in makeup. True there were a few communities of Germans scattered around South Australia, sizeable numbers of Chinese and even a smattering of Indonesians and Japanese pearlers in spots like Broome and Darwin. That's a huge generalisation of course there were smallish communities from other parts of the world in both melb and sydney pre war but on the whole Oz was pretty homogenous ( and bland) Any real potential for conflict wasn't ethnically based, it was sectarian or class based (Australia being anything but a classless society, contrary to popular myth).

Multi-ethnic, what later became known as multi-cultural Australia became a reality from the late 1940s onward with massive waves of post war migration. Despite having suffered a backlash from the redneck crowd in the late nineties and early part of this century, it's the current reality. And thank God for it. For one thing the food's improved out of sight.