Rise of Australia

Chapter 487 Fort St. Arthur
The turmoil of the food safety bill continued, and Arthur also established the Food Safety Administration to supervise and manage the safety of food and catering.

Regarding food safety, Arthur welcomes and encourages Australasians to actively report companies suspected of violating the Food Safety Act. Once verified, they can receive a reward of up to 1000 Australian dollars.

Although Arthur encourages everyone to actively report, it cannot be ruled out that some people report maliciously.For malicious reporting, especially continuous malicious reporting, the government will also impose fines according to the actual situation.

But generally speaking, ordinary people will not continue to maliciously report food companies. After all, there is no hatred, and malicious reporting will put themselves at risk.

While the nationwide food safety inspection campaign was still in progress, Arthur took a special train and prepared to go to the location of the new capital, the Murray River Basin.

Accompanying Arthur were Laurent, the Minister of Transport, Kevin, the Minister of Finance, and a portion of the Guards.

Long before construction on the new capital began, a public consultation was held across the country.

After all, it is a brand new capital, built in a wilderness, and it should also have a brand new name.

Arthur handed over the naming rights to all Australasians, solicited Australasian opinions in major newspapers, and voted to choose the most popular name for the new capital.

In the end, St. Arthur's Castle emerged as the official name for the new capital.

The major newspapers received more than 500 million name suggestion letters in total, and selected 100 seemingly reliable names for public voting.

St. Arthur's Castle received a support rate of 49.3%, with more than 300 million people voting for St. Arthur's Castle.

Arthur's English name is Arthur, which is translated as Arthur or Arthur.The famous British mythological and historical monarch King Arthur also has this name.

St. Arthur's Fort (St. Arthur's Fort) can be used not only to commemorate Arthur's great contribution to Australasia, but also to commemorate this famous figure in Celtic mythology.

Whether the story of King Arthur is true or not is unknown, but the legendary story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table makes all British people proud and always remember it.

The addition of a holy word to Arthur's name may be controversial, but the addition of a holy word to King Arthur's name has not been refuted.

Anyway, Arthur comes from the British royal family, and there is nothing wrong with saying that Australasia has inherited the cultural heritage and mythology of the British Empire.

Fort St. Arthur is located at the junction of the Murray River and the Darling River. The current permanent resident population has exceeded 1000.

After a day of rushing, Arthur finally arrived in this new city before dark.

After all, it was Arthur's first time in this area.Before this area was identified as the site for the new capital, there was not even a railway here.

Even in later generations of Australia, there was no development here, and the vast plains were gradually abandoned, wasting hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land.

The current situation is much better than 100 years later. From entering the Murray River Plain, you can see an obvious lush plain.

Because it had long been identified as the site of the new capital, a railway connecting Adelaide and Melbourne was built in this area.

There is a brand new highway next to the railway, prepared for the new capital. It is a large two-way four-lane highway up to 12.5 meters wide.

As you can see from the administrative map of Australasia, the capital is located exactly at the border of New South Wales and Victoria, and the entire Murray River Basin is also distributed on the border of the two states.

Like the previous capital territory, it is destined to be additionally divided, new administrative regions will be established, and the southeast will be divided more finely.

As a country with a land area not much different from that of the United States, there are only a dozen total administrative divisions in Australasia, and there are only nine administrative divisions in the mainland (Australia and New Zealand).

Although it seems that the maximum area of ​​a single state is even up to millions of square kilometers, such a huge administrative division is not an advantage, but a flaw in the country's administrative divisions.

Especially the southeastern states of New South Wales and Victoria, the combined size of these two states far exceeds the sum of the other states in Australia.

Combined, New South Wales and Victoria would be twice as large as the other states if it weren't for the land around Sydney being additionally divided into the ACT.

With the development of the times, big cities have become the current international mainstream.But that doesn't mean that states like Victoria and New South Wales, which make up a significant portion of the country's population and size, are healthy.

Even in serious terms, these two states can affect the entire country at any time, and it is easy to cause an imbalance of national political power.

Speaking of Fort St. Arthur, after Arthur arrived in the planned urban area, he did not rush to inspect the construction progress of the capital, but followed the Murray River and the Darling River to actually observe the flow of these two rivers.

These two rivers are definitely the two most important rivers in Australasia, with a drainage area of ​​up to 164 million square kilometers, and most of them are flat plains.

If the watersheds of these two rivers can be fully developed, it will be a huge boost to the agriculture, animal husbandry and development of Australasia.

The Australian region will also completely widen the gap with future generations. The Australian region alone has a basic guarantee for becoming a powerful country.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Australian region, where the Darling River and Murray River basins have been developed, already has the guarantee to accommodate hundreds of millions or even [-] million people.

Coupled with lands such as New Zealand and New Guinea, Australasia has no problem accommodating a healthy population of more than [-] million.

Note that it is a healthy tolerance.If the gains and losses of resources are not calculated, there is no problem in accommodating a population of more than [-] million, but the amount of resources per capita will be greatly reduced.

But having said that, immigrant countries like Australasia, without hundreds of years of precipitation and development, cannot have a population of hundreds of millions.

Based on the calculation of 200 million immigrants and 50 newborn babies every year, it will take at least 30 years for the population of Australasia to reach hundreds of millions.

This still does not count the number of deaths. The number of immigrants must be maintained at more than 200 million.

Ideally, being able to increase the population to about 5000 million before World War II would already satisfy Arthur's appetite.

After all, 5000 million is also the threshold for a superpower and a powerful country. Only a population of more than 5000 million can form millions of troops and become one of the protagonists in super wars such as World War I and World War II.

Note that the army here is the local army in the true sense, that is, the National Defense Force composed entirely of citizens.

If you want to use those indigenous troops to make up the numbers, Australasia can easily form millions of troops now, but the real combat effectiveness is worth pondering.

You must know that with the development of time and technology, the influence of manpower on war is actually decreasing.In particular, the influence of the indigenous army composed of indigenous people on the war is actually decreasing.

During the First World War, the British and Australasian armies were generally composed of Aboriginal troops.Especially in Australasia, the defense force only numbered over 100, but more than [-] million troops were sent to the European battlefield in World War I.

There is a big reason for this. The weapons of World War I were not very advanced, and the reliability of aircraft and tanks was not high. The real lethal weapons were machine guns and artillery.

This simplest heavy firepower weapon can be stacked with human life, and most of the time even a desperate charge will have miraculous effects.

However, the performance of aircraft and tanks in World War II was greatly improved, and their damage to ordinary people was also greatly increased.

More often than not, those ordinary indigenous soldiers are cannon fodder in the true sense, which can only delay the war a little.

The war at this time was not only a competition of manpower and materials, but also a competition of technology.

Especially after World War II, after several powerful countries have mastered nuclear weapons, manpower has become less popular.

After all, if a war broke out, one atomic bomb would be enough to kill or injure hundreds of thousands of people.The millions of troops who were proud of World War I were nothing more than paper in the face of the atomic bomb.

Especially after Australasia's population exceeds 2000 million, it can form an army of more than one million based on its own population alone.

At this time, the role of indigenous people is not that high. A large number of indigenous people will also take jobs from Australasians, which will be counterproductive.

Therefore, Australasia's next goal is to develop a large number of military technologies.Especially when it comes to tanks and aircraft, you have to stay ahead of the curve.

Compared with the Murray River, the water volume of the Darling River is too dependent on the seasons.The amount of water in the Darling River is still very abundant during the rainy season, but during the dry season the amount of water will be reduced by more than half, which has certain restrictions on the development of agriculture.

However, the amount of water in the Darling River is still sufficient at present, and there will not be such a high demand for water until the area is fully developed.

Arthur looked at the relatively detailed geographical drawings drawn by the survey team. The basin centered on the new capital was almost covered by the Murray River and the Darling River. As long as it was managed well, there would be no shortage of water resources.

This is encouraging news, after all, the development of industry, agriculture, and even cities require large amounts of water, which is scarce in much of Australasia.

There is a peculiar phenomenon in Australasia. Whether a region is suitable for urban development is not based on the resources and development potential of the region, but on the water resources the region possesses.

The two most populous cities, Sydney and Melbourne, are located by the sea, and are in the southeast of the Australian region, east and south of the Great Dividing Range, with abundant rainfall and no shortage of water resources.

And the relatively high-development southeastern region is also due to having a large amount of water resources.

The reason why South Australia and Western Australia cannot develop is precisely because these two states have large deserts, and the climate is very dry, and they lack water resources.

The Leonora industrial base built in Western Australia has almost exhausted the entire water resources of Western Australia, and the water resource problem has also caused headaches for both the state government and the national government.

And the north-south water diversion project that Arthur has been thinking about cannot be completed in a short period of time, not to mention that the submarine pipeline technology has not been broken so far.

Taken together, the only areas in Australasia that can and are suitable for vigorous development are the Murray and Darling river basins.

As long as the land of more than 160 million square kilometers is fully developed, Australasia's agriculture, animal husbandry and industry will go further, and the country's development potential will also increase by a large margin.

Arthur was very satisfied with the first day's itinerary, and the attendants set up camp on the spot, and temporarily built a campsite for Arthur and the soldiers to live in.

This trip to inspect the new capital will take at least several days, so the soldiers are quite well prepared.

After tasting a steak and a can of canned fruit, Arthur fell asleep in a hurry, ending his busy day.

The canned fruit that Arthur enjoys is specially made by the Royal Food Cannery, which is specially supplied to the royal family to ensure that there is enough fruit to eat during the long journey.

Such cans do not have any additives and pursue the taste of the food itself. They are very healthy and Arthur will occasionally taste them.

Of course, there are no additives to make the shelf life of this kind of canned food very short. The shelf life of general canned fruit is no more than 15 days at most, and the shortest is even eaten within 7 days.

In addition to the cans specially supplied to the royal family, there are also some higher-end cans on the market, which also have no additives or only very few additives.

The price of this kind of can is much more expensive than ordinary cans, and the main focus is health.

It is worth mentioning that this relatively expensive can was provided to nobles for free, but the quantity was limited.

This can be regarded as an additional benefit for the nobles, and the nobles can also choose to buy it themselves. Anyway, any noble in Australasia is not short of money.

Arthur's campsite is near the Murray River Basin, and the sound of the rushing river can even be heard.

Accompanied by the fresh air and the sound of water flowing, Arthur quickly fell asleep, with only the chirping of insects and gusts of night wind in his ears.

Although Arthur fell asleep, the soldiers on guard did not dare to blink.Australia's wild environment is relatively poor. Although there is a lack of large carnivores, there are still many poisonous insects and snakes.

Although the team will carry insect repellent and snake repellent medicine with them, no one can guarantee whether there will be an accident.

The best way is to guard Arthur at all times to ensure that poisonous insects and snakes do not suddenly get into the tent. After all, this is no joke.

There are several professional doctors accompanying the team, and no one can guarantee whether there will be a special poisonous insect.It was about Arthur's life and safety, and no one dared to let down their guard.

Fortunately, there were still a large number of Guards soldiers who came with them. A group of 20 guarded around Arthur's tent, and they were rotated every hour, and the night soon passed.

　The second update of 4000 words, ask for a monthly ticket, ask for support!

　　There is another update after 12 o'clock, about 01:30.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)