The discussion about “MAD MAX” made me wonder…assuming the rest of the (industialized) world were wiped out by a nuclear war, would Australia be able to survive? Is Australia sufficient in steel, hightech, electronics, etc., such that it could make everything it needs? Assuming that Europe/USA/Japan are wiped out, could Australia keep western civilization going?
Or would those hunky guys in blackl leather (MFP) just be overwhelmed by the barbarian biker gangs? 
Australia has no oil. If circumstances are such that they can’t import it, they’re screwed.
Australia exports natural gas, and also has very large coal fields, which again are a source of exports. If necessary, it could manufacture oil and petrol, using these as raw materials. (It doesn’t do so at present, because it’s not economical to do so).
Australia doesn’t actually make much of anything. Practically all consumer goods are imported from China. They are rich in raw materials but without the industrial infrastructure to actually make anything of them.
There is a bit of car manufacturing being carried out in Australia by local subsidiaries of Ford, GM(H), and Mitsubishi, but most of the parts used in putting together the automobiles are imported.
I don’t know that they could save or support the entire world, but they would be better off than many other countries. They might have to tighten their belts for a little while, but I bet they would make it. If everyone else collapses, they can no longer import, and there would be no one to export to, but they have their own resources for the important things (food etc). Given the economic incentive, they have the technology and knowledge to start building up the industries that are cheaper to import or farm out right now.
To correct some misconceptions manufacturing is the second largest sector of the Australian economy and employs about 10% of the workforce. In general the australian economy is dominated by the services sector, and manufacturing is now declining in relative terms but in absolute terms manufacturing here has seen a huge expansion since the second world war.
BrainGlutton and Giles, Australia is currently almost self-sufficient in oil due to deposits in central Australia and in Bass Strait, and exports oil to other countries in the asia/pacific region notably South Korea. The Bass Strait fields have yielded about 30 billion barrels since their exploitation began in the 1960s though they will likely be depleted in the next 20 years.
What are they manufacturing? With very few exceptions almost everything I buy is imported from somewhere else.
This is so based on conjecture that the true answer is probably impossible to get to, but I’ll take a stab at it.
Would Australia be able to continue at its present rates of consumption/standard of living? Probably not, especially as it would be only expedient to consume as few resources as possible, considering that there would be absolutely no possibility of trade.
Would Australia be able to have a viable, self-supporting society, albeit a less technologically-advanced one (especially if they took a population hit from the disaster)? Quite possibly. However, it must be considered that, broadly speaking, Australia is uninhabitable except for the coastal areas. Also, a quick Google for “arable land australia” gives us a figure of between six and seven percent, which is not too encouraging for a very large country (transportation would be limited, I imagine) that would need to produce all its own food.
So…maybe?
Completely incidentally, Nevil Shute’s “On the Beach” is an interesting (albeit not terribly well-written and somewhat filled with Cold War paranoia) exploration of the question, “What would happen if there were a nuclear war and the Australians, waiting for the radiation to spread to them, were the only ones left?” Really good read, and highly recommended.
You might be surprised. Like most people you probably dont give the manufacturer of something you buy alot of thought. I know I dont. But for this exercise I as a random consumer have just opened my bathroom cabinet and checked the labels of all the consumer goods there for where they were manufactured:
Gillette shaving cream, (Australia)
Bic razors, (Greece)
deodorant (Australia)
colgate toothpaste (Australia)
Listerine mouthwash (Australia)
Reach tooth floss (US/Dominican Republic)
Ansell condoms (India)
bandaids (Japan)
Imperial Leather soap (Australia)
Sorbent toilet paper (Australia)
Cedel hair gel (Australia)
Dettol antiseptic (UK)
Palmolive shampoo (Phillipines)
Moving on from that random collection of crap we also build memory and motherboards, aircraft, cars, guided missile frigates, submarines, etc etc etc employing 1.1 million people which is a considerable chunk of our workforce.
Australia might preserve western civilization after a nuclear war wiped up the northern henisphere, but South America’s a better bet - a better mix of resources and a much larger population.
Why would Australia not survive if you wiped yourselves out? You are talking about a continent with enormous mineral resources, and one that is a major food exporter to the rest of the world. If we assume no nuclear winter we could feed ourselves and therefore we would go on. We dont need you for food or fuel and everything else is secondary. The western civilisation of Plato and Rembrandt would survive. I’m not sure why the end of the influx of japanese electronic goods would cause a Mad Max scenario. Last years model should stave off a collapse into barbarism. I mean I will be buying a new PC this year and much of the componentry will likely be imported but at the end of the day I dont need it and wont fight my neighbour with my bare teeth over a motherboard.
It would mean massive economic dislocation as we are a major trading nation. Many people would lose jobs and there would be a period of adjustment but we would continue as a technological society. A society that wouldnt evolve as quickly without imported foreign influences of course, but an organised functional technological society nonetheless. When it comes down to it we dont import the means of survival, we dont buy from the world what we need in those terms, we buy things we want which is very different. Its convenient and easier to import then to make everything ourselves. The scenario can be equated with the blockade of Britain in WW2. The trade in consumer goods died but Britain survived.
So yeah we’d miss you guys as you’re fun to have around but we’d go on. For that matter even tiny New Zealand could preserve western civilisation on its own. It’s not that complicated.
Of course we’d do it in a more dignified manner then the kiwis and would be less likely to erect 800 foot high effigies of a sheep’s hindquarters.
Australia is massively urbanised and it takes a lot of technology to support those kind of population densities. I doubt Australia could support anywhere near the current population density if it lost most of it’s high technology.
No it doesnt at all. Australian population densities are the result of our colonisation pattern and its been that way ever since first settlement and long predates the advent of high technology. Australia has only two especially large cities by historical standards (Melbourne and Sydney) and by contemporary standards even these arent particularly big. Its been demonstrated for over 2000 years to use Rome at the empire’s peak that large urban populations require a reliable food supply they are not dependent on high technology. No Australian city is anywhere even close to the size of say London in 1900 well before the birth of modern high technology.