Why is Australia one country? SJ Dodgson. MJoTA 2013 v7n2 p1118.
So why has Oz never split into 2 or 3 countries that hate each other? Why does Oz still have a whole continent all to itself? Look at the Northern American landmass: Canada, USA and Mexico are jammed together. And the island of Hispaniola: with both the Dominican Republic and Haiti. And then Europe, Asia, and of course Africa.
One explanation could be that only the British planted a flag and claimed Australia. That is not true, but maybe what happened was other countries did not want to fight over Australia. Until Japan in the second world war.
I remember that Queensland was not happy for some years, we used to joke that Queensland was 20 years and 1 hour behind the rest of the East Coast. But that all has been resolved, now Queensland is a favored state to live and work.
Could Australia split into separate countries? I do not know. So far it has not.
After being away for 21 years, I returned to Australia in 2010 to stay with my brother in the inner-city suburb of Surry Hills.
During my afternoon walks I frequently wandered down to Circular Quay and all around the city. I did not hear English spoken in the streets. Mostly Asian languages, and also European languages. I also found that girls I went to school with have mostly left Sydney, forced out by skyrocketing real estate prices that resulted from Asian billionaires paying exorbitant prices for modest houses.
Will this cause trouble leading to revolution or secession? I do not know.
What I do know is that Australia has a lot of land: the resource that is most limited is water.
