Australia - Economic Collapse - Food Shortages

Dear Australian,
I am a whinging P.O.M, and have never had the pleasure of visiting your esteemed colony. But as Australians are also proud subjects of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth Regina II I'd like to offer the following advice from the motherland.

In times of need, stockpiing food is good but it's FAR more useful and important to have some seeds and learn how to SPROUT food.
If you have some seeds, it's nearly impossible to go hungry if you know how to sprout. Anyone can grow their own supply of food even in an apartment. It takes approx 5 days for seeds to germinate.
As far as water goes...Atmospheric water generators work even in deserts.

I do however agree with your main point that you don't have too much to worry about down under.
Sincerely,



[edit on 30-10-2008 by HiAliens]

Australia exports amazing quantities of sheep to the middle east.
They could live quite comfortably eating them instead.

When I was in the first gulf war, an Australian sheep ship passed through the gulf. I will never forget the sight of dead sheep floating in the hot gulf sun with crabs sitting on top of them. I have no doubt that the ship must have dumped many hundreds of them on it's journey.

I looked it up and a sheep ship carrys about 50,000 sheep at a time.

Australians will be OK, don't worry about that.

Good Point,
As sheep and all livestock need large amounts of water and grain to survive, if you reduced lamb exports/intake in times of need you'd free up huge amounts of water/grain/land for vegetable production.

reply to post by Nonchalant

exactly, your point is well said!

I read your post with great interest to the point i signed up to ATS to reply, as a fellow Australian, an ex-member of the regular army and currently the CO of one of her states militia, i would say to you that he who has not made the effort to at least make any simple preparations in the event of a local or national emergency is a fool, lazy, ignorant or has a death wish. Whilst you may hear alot of news throughout the internet about the collapse of the USA the EU in peril and the likely rise of the Chinese empire emerging from the settling dust we here in Australia will receive its share of fall out from these epic times. And if we are smart we will try to look at the various scenarios that our country is likely to will face and we should plan accordingly.

Australia is a constantly developing nation and would be considered geographically under populated compared to other country's of our physical size, we are rich in resources, agriculture and people here live generally pretty well. On the flip side we are largely in debt per person more in debt than our American cousins. Housing prices are severely inflated around the capital cities and much of our manufacturing is being moved off shore. Should the $US collapse and be replaced as the worlds currency the US would lose %30 of its GDP resulting in a huge decline in Chinese exports thus resulting in a huge decline of Australias resource exports. Large scale unemployment is something we must look as a strong possibility here and you must ask yourself can i get by being jobless for what could be a long time.

We have aggressive neighbours to our north in Asia who's populations are swelling and militarys are being heavily upgraded and it is a fact that these nations view Australia as little more than an empty space of land inhabited by a few colonies of white men and you can be sure envious eyes would be viewing this country a collapse of the US would leave Australia's security vulnerable, western influence throughout the Pacific would wane as China's influence would grow. If in event a conflict ever broke out between China and the US the results would vary depending on how far down the time line an event like this were occur. If it broke out tomorrow China would be screwed if it happened 10 to 20 years down the track i think the US would be screwed. The point being here is that at any time i would not be difficult for a foreign enemy to land half a million troops on our northern coast and i hold little hope that our allies in the UK and US will be able to do much to stop this.

Even the wise would be prepared for a natural disaster such a bush fires floods or the potential disruption of a power grid failure. Sadly if people think your a weirdo for preparing then these people will be the enemy should ever the shtf and it is probably the best thing to avoid such folk. On a last note i would be doing more than stocking up on more than just 2 minute noodles and canned food if you are serious about preparing.

Regards

1.00 Australian Dollar = 0.9827 U.S. Dollar

Australia is in great shape
it will become even better as the whole Eastern -Asian-Oceania areas
take away the USA-western Europe vicegrip on world dominance

Aus. has a strong asset based land, people, resource laden economy...
even the NZ currency is losing to your dollar... see NZ is an Agricultural based land,
so being neighbors, they will be providing the products your short on...
a mutual benefit situation that needs nurtured more, imho

i'd stock up a 6 month pantry or larder... not for survival but for austerity
and riding through higher priced times of some items that the manipulators
of the world engineer into scarcity (for their profits)
Youse guys are in very good shape, just don't let NATO partnerships
turn the Australian ship-of-state off course

reply to post by militiahq


Great post well said.

When a stone is cast into the center of a pond,the center is immediately displaced,the ripples may take some time to reach the edge,but they will get there,the whole pond will feel the displacement from the center.

Its only a matter of time.

I think the rumors of coming food shortages have something to do with the loss of pollenators(sp) worldwide.

Do your own research.

Hi

I dont know if this thread is still open. Last poast was liek 2 years ago :S

Anyway, Im 17 turnign 18 and I live in Australia, I'v been hording about 22 ounces of silver for the coming economic collapse. I want to know what should we be expecting in Australia. Do you think theres going to be a social collapse? Will there be a dissolution of commerce? What trades do you think will be most beneficial in this time?

Please reply I cant find any other sources on the internet about this topic

Thanks alot

Okay, I'm not Australian but I lived there for a year, if that gives me any credibility. I have background in science and economics. I say this: Australia is very strong and very stable. It's not infallible of course, but it is a lot more stable than many other countries. Russia invests in your dollar even.

If something was to happen to Australia, I doubt it would be as severe as in elsewhere. If anything, with the global financial crisis, I see Australia as rising into more power as other nations fall from power from sheer economic elegance.

People who stockpile food... are kind of weird. Why not just grow a vegetable garden? And I don't think Australian government will ever let its people starve. Although capitalism is an inherently unstable system, so at worst you could see something happen like what is happening in Greece. And people lose their jobs. But as I said, Australia is economically strong, I really don't think this would happen.

reply to post by Nonchalant


thats one of the advantages of black powder shooting (not sure if you can own cap and ball down there as usa does not classify them as fire arms)looks like your going to loose your stock pile just pop some cannon fuse in a can of pyrodex or equivilent add a few 5 gallon jerry cans of gas and boom supplies ruined and they dont get to take your stuff.
You may be dead but they just lost a good deal of people trying to take what was yours and end up with nothing but dead people and ruined supplies......

as far as food stockpile its one of the few things that really cant hurt to do as at the very least you have alot of extra food and as long as you rotate it to eat it before it goes bad its one of the more useful preps in my mind just dont forget the water or capability to acquire it. another thing would be looking into aquaponics with some fish thrown in there and you got your self some decent food production that would not be as vulnerable to rats and other pests(hard for locusts to eat fish right?)

There's no need for concern. Australia is a net exporter of food. If the SHTF tomorrow, Australia could easily feed it's populace with food left-over to export. Take a look at what we produce and what we import. The only reason we import food here is because labour is cheaper overseas. I think our small water supply is of more concern. I read something ages ago (sorry I can't remember where I read this...) which claimed we had enough fresh water to sustain a population of around 9 million people. I think that was taking into account good rainy seasons and drought seasons.

Indonesia has a population the size of the USA in a country of 740,000 sq miles...
...everyone eats.

Australia has what, 22 million on a land mass the size of the USA.

I have a mate who feeds himself from the balcony of a one bedroom apartment with the help of a worm farm.

Most of the world will have failed before Australia does.

[I thought the seed idea was a good one though]

One of the most interesting things I think is not to stock pile, but to understand what is out there in our Outback with regards to food. Also we have roos as well, which the aborigines survived off quite happily, along with fish and so on.
I have attached a link on Bush Foods found in Australia, but... I suggest that if you really want to get into this, you study hard on what is available, as with any food you find in the bush, what may look like food may not be as some plants are very similar...(leaves are always a good give away as to whether or not it edible)... So knowledge is the key....

en.wikipedia.org...

Wow this thread is an interesting blast from the past.
Can't believe when I made my post Baked Beans were only 45c a can.
They are now twice that 3 years later....!
Hows that for a snap shot of inflation.!