A brief history of the pre-Fall period 2031-2050
(excerpts taken from 'Time before The Fall' by Gregory James, 2584, Dunlop Press: New Melbourne.)
PRE-FALL PERIOD TIMELINE
2031: Wallcom Corp™ commences its development program in Australia with construction on the first wallcom, Blue Rock Wallcom 135km east of Melbourne, Victoria, completed in 2037.
This ushers in a decade of intensive wallcom construction in the 2030s-40s.
2035-40: The 4th Global Conflict (4GC)* – a series of ongoing conflicts fought primarily in and around the Arab Gulf states and South East Asian region between the US/South Africa/European Union Coalition (incl. Russian Federation) and the Sino/Gulf States/Indonesian Alliance, and respective allies - results in extensive loss of life (est. 62.2 mil.**), severe fuel shortages and significant rises in prices of crude oil, petro-products worldwide. Australia and New Zealand enter the conflict as part of the US-SA-EU Coalition; both countries suffer proportionally high losses.
* The first in this series of four major global conflicts of the period is World War 1 or Great War, 1914-18; World War 2, 1939-45; and the Third Global Conflict, 3GC, 2026-28.
** This is considered a conservative figure with some estimates going as high as 90 million. The figure is contested as some counts only include combat casualties while others factor in civilian casualty rates.
Against the backdrop of the war, and concomitant increases in occurrences of domestic terrorist attacks culminating in the bombing of the Sydney Opera House on March 2, 2036, with more than 2000 casualties, the growing reach of global insecurity takes a firm grip on a previously somewhat sheltered Australia. Within this context, a reinvigorated tide of nationalism results and, in July 2039, a referendum is held on the question of the nation becoming a Republic – it is carried unanimously. On the 1st of January, 2040, the United Republic of Australia (URA, First Republic) is born.
Executive leadership changes to a Presidential model with Mikael Tomas (Labor) being inaugurated as the first President of the Republic, appointed by Parliament for a 4-year period.
2040: The winding down and ultimate cessation of 4GC sees a period of great worldwide social unrest in the wake of dwindling fossil fuel resources and rising costs of living due to worldwide disruption in trade. In Australia, this leads to the issuing of General Emergency Response Initiatives (GERIs) by the Government of the Republic designed to curb increasingly widespread lawlessness. Issued with bilateral parliamentary support, GERIs 1 to 15 restrict some civil liberties, chiefly the right to gather in groups of more than ten and the right to public protest, while increasing discretionary in-situ arrest and detain powers to the judiciary policing and emergency services. They also provide a tougher legal response to hoarding, looting, fuel theft and a range of other property and personal crimes, as well as wider anti-terrorist initiatives.
The period is brought to a head in November, 2041, with the so-called ‘Petrol Riots’ in all major population centres in Australia, most significantly in Melbourne and Sydney; reflecting similar events in many cities worldwide. The riots are in response to a range of social issues focusing on increasing vulnerabilities concerning public safety, impediments to civil liberties represented by GERIs, increased militarisation, suspension of social services, and the rising costs of goods, services and utilities. However, unrest is characterised most starkly by the meteoric rise in hitherto held-down petrol prices which soar up to and over the symbolic ‘line in the sand’ mark of 100 e-coin# per litre, making it all but unaffordable for most citizens.
Despite a major swing to non-fossil fuelled vehicles in the late 20s, the price of petrol for many Australians remains a traditional and symbolic quality-of-life measure. The riots are a reflection of this growing sense of frustration, and provide further impetus for the security-oriented wallcom construction.
# e-coin was the international pre-Fall currency. Initially pegged to the US dollar 2034, it was free-floated internationally in 2038, becoming the official, and first, international uniform unit of currency.
2041-50: This era, called the ‘Great Construction Decade’ by proponents and the ‘Great Australian Divide’ by opponents, sees the advancement of aggressive major construction programs of both public and private restricted-access walled communities – wallcoms – in a period of incredibly rapid expansion across the country.
Within the context of 4GC, the Petrol Riots and escalating social disorder and terrorism, the publicly stated rationale and main drivers for the construction programs are to provide greater security and enhanced lifestyle for those who can afford it. In the case of government-sponsored communities, it is intended that the revenue generated by sales of lots within the compounds and the lucrative utilities licences to major corporations will be returned to the public purse for social welfare initiatives. Despite extensive media and press releases focusing on lifestyle enhancement, it is privately acknowledged that the aggressive wallcom construction program is a direct security response to the world-wide social unrest also being felt strongly in Australia.
During this period, in January of 2044, President Tomas ends his term making way for the second President of the Republic Lauren McCann (Liberal). President McCann’s term in office is a no less difficult than her predecessor and midway through the first year of her term, in an atmosphere of increasing social violence and growing casualties, she issues her first GERI, number 16, declaring country-wide martial law on the 1st of May, 2044.
Adding to the controversy of the wallcom projects is the compulsory chip implant program which requires all residents of walled communities to have embedded identifier microchips; subcutaneous, micro-thin strips based in 360-technology platforms allowing for the provision of a comprehensive data-stream of personal information. The neck and fingertip implants mean that residents can be constantly monitored on multiple readings; Wallcom Corporation™ maintains this is purely for lifestyle enhancement purposes. Social libertarians take up the implant issue, and it becomes a major point of division across the country with lines drawn between wallcom and non-wallcom residents, the former seeing themselves as privileged, the latter as free.
The issue is brought to a head with the ground-breaking Metzner vs Wallcom Corporation case [HCR 2043] where Evan Metzner challenges the right of Wallcom Corp to require compulsory implants of its residents. The High Court of the Republic rules in favour of Wallcom Corp finding that the company has the right to set the terms of residence within its properties, as long as the conditions comply with Federal and State law. It also holds that, despite being a sub-cutaneous procedure, microchip-implanting does not qualify as ‘invasive’. The decision also gives rise to an intense debate around bio-tech enhancements. The Transhumanist movement, advocating that people need to use all available technologies to enhance human capabilities, gains a good deal of ground on the back of the Metzner decision.
Metzner seems to add momentum to the building program itself, also accelerated by visible support from the McCann government, and many new wallcoms are constructed in 2043-46. Some of these are built on bulldozed, forcibly seized, urban properties (GERIs 17-18) further adding to public protest and ill-feeling, but most are constructed outside of major cities on acquired properties in thinly-populated rural and semi-rural areas linked to major cities by high-speed Fast-Trak™ maglev lines.
Further, as highlighted by opponents, funds from compound allotment sales are not as forthcoming in being returned to the public purse and services continue to suffer, a second major round of martial laws is enacted in response to increasingly widespread violent social unrest, protest at wallcom sites and further instances of terrorist attacks. These include the activation and expansion of Army Reserves, formation of citizen militias, greater general access to firearms, and wider powers of detainment and arrest, as incorporated in GERIs 19-22 (2046-47).
2048: President Lauren McCann is re-elected for a second term.
2050: The Jackson Virus – aka J-Virus or JV – outbreak occurs. Theorised to be a highly contagious variant strain of rabies, not influenza as first widely reported, it is recorded as originating in Mildura, in the Mallee region of north-western Victoria, 550 kilometers from Melbourne (800km to Canberra, 1000km to Sydney) in late April, 2050. It is named after the doctor credited with having first identified the virus, Dr Riley Jackson. Mildura is thereafter generally accepted as Ground Zero for the infection.
Taking approximately two weeks to take hold and significantly affect population centres in scattered rural communities, the hitherto unknown highly virulent strain eventually reaches the main east coast population centres of Melbourne, Ballarat, Geelong, Bendigo, Sydney, Canberra, Newcastle and Brisbane at various dates in the period of May to June 2050, with catastrophic effects on the population. Cities located in the west and north of Australia and the more remote outback communities take somewhat longer to succumb to the epidemic, but also eventually fall.
Australia is placed under full quarantine, and with comprehensive international isolation measures put in place, the catastrophe is already being viewed as a major, potentially global, health-threat event. Termed ‘The Fall’, the onset of the Jackson Virus sends social media into a frenzy, with end-of-the-world theories rampant.
As the number of infected rise daily, and law and order begins to break down, President McCann, the second and last President of the First Australian Republic, issues the final General Emergency Response Initiative, number 23, on June 28, 2050; the briefest, but possibly most poignant:
'By order of the Executive of the United Republic of Australia; any infected persons are, under Australian constitutional law, able to be met with fatal intent. Any citizen taking extreme action in respect to terminating the life of an infected person will not be held liable under Australian Law.'
Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra are soon completely overrun by infected, estimated to be in the millions; the remaining non-infected have fled the cities and surrounding suburbs. From June 30 to July 10, 2050, extensive carpet-bombing of these and other satellite cities is carried out by the URA Air Force in an attempt to deny the cities to the infected and to terminate as many as possible. These actions do not wipe out the virus and only serve to further devastate extensive tracts of urban landscape. The last established safe havens for the citizens of the country become the wallcoms; the source of much pre-Fall social division – they, however, are not impregnable and many are swamped in the chaos.
It is held that the Jackson Virus finally claims Australia on the 15th of July, 2050 - the date and wider period known as The Fall - it is the date that infected Australians are now clearly numerically superior to non-infected.
The Fall is a work of fiction by S.T. Campitelli ©2023, all rights reserved.
2031: Wallcom Corp™ commences its development program in Australia with construction on the first wallcom, Blue Rock Wallcom 135km east of Melbourne, Victoria, completed in 2037.
This ushers in a decade of intensive wallcom construction in the 2030s-40s.
2035-40: The 4th Global Conflict (4GC)* – a series of ongoing conflicts fought primarily in and around the Arab Gulf states and South East Asian region between the US/South Africa/European Union Coalition (incl. Russian Federation) and the Sino/Gulf States/Indonesian Alliance, and respective allies - results in extensive loss of life (est. 62.2 mil.**), severe fuel shortages and significant rises in prices of crude oil, petro-products worldwide. Australia and New Zealand enter the conflict as part of the US-SA-EU Coalition; both countries suffer proportionally high losses.
* The first in this series of four major global conflicts of the period is World War 1 or Great War, 1914-18; World War 2, 1939-45; and the Third Global Conflict, 3GC, 2026-28.
** This is considered a conservative figure with some estimates going as high as 90 million. The figure is contested as some counts only include combat casualties while others factor in civilian casualty rates.
Against the backdrop of the war, and concomitant increases in occurrences of domestic terrorist attacks culminating in the bombing of the Sydney Opera House on March 2, 2036, with more than 2000 casualties, the growing reach of global insecurity takes a firm grip on a previously somewhat sheltered Australia. Within this context, a reinvigorated tide of nationalism results and, in July 2039, a referendum is held on the question of the nation becoming a Republic – it is carried unanimously. On the 1st of January, 2040, the United Republic of Australia (URA, First Republic) is born.
Executive leadership changes to a Presidential model with Mikael Tomas (Labor) being inaugurated as the first President of the Republic, appointed by Parliament for a 4-year period.
2040: The winding down and ultimate cessation of 4GC sees a period of great worldwide social unrest in the wake of dwindling fossil fuel resources and rising costs of living due to worldwide disruption in trade. In Australia, this leads to the issuing of General Emergency Response Initiatives (GERIs) by the Government of the Republic designed to curb increasingly widespread lawlessness. Issued with bilateral parliamentary support, GERIs 1 to 15 restrict some civil liberties, chiefly the right to gather in groups of more than ten and the right to public protest, while increasing discretionary in-situ arrest and detain powers to the judiciary policing and emergency services. They also provide a tougher legal response to hoarding, looting, fuel theft and a range of other property and personal crimes, as well as wider anti-terrorist initiatives.
The period is brought to a head in November, 2041, with the so-called ‘Petrol Riots’ in all major population centres in Australia, most significantly in Melbourne and Sydney; reflecting similar events in many cities worldwide. The riots are in response to a range of social issues focusing on increasing vulnerabilities concerning public safety, impediments to civil liberties represented by GERIs, increased militarisation, suspension of social services, and the rising costs of goods, services and utilities. However, unrest is characterised most starkly by the meteoric rise in hitherto held-down petrol prices which soar up to and over the symbolic ‘line in the sand’ mark of 100 e-coin# per litre, making it all but unaffordable for most citizens.
Despite a major swing to non-fossil fuelled vehicles in the late 20s, the price of petrol for many Australians remains a traditional and symbolic quality-of-life measure. The riots are a reflection of this growing sense of frustration, and provide further impetus for the security-oriented wallcom construction.
# e-coin was the international pre-Fall currency. Initially pegged to the US dollar 2034, it was free-floated internationally in 2038, becoming the official, and first, international uniform unit of currency.
2041-50: This era, called the ‘Great Construction Decade’ by proponents and the ‘Great Australian Divide’ by opponents, sees the advancement of aggressive major construction programs of both public and private restricted-access walled communities – wallcoms – in a period of incredibly rapid expansion across the country.
Within the context of 4GC, the Petrol Riots and escalating social disorder and terrorism, the publicly stated rationale and main drivers for the construction programs are to provide greater security and enhanced lifestyle for those who can afford it. In the case of government-sponsored communities, it is intended that the revenue generated by sales of lots within the compounds and the lucrative utilities licences to major corporations will be returned to the public purse for social welfare initiatives. Despite extensive media and press releases focusing on lifestyle enhancement, it is privately acknowledged that the aggressive wallcom construction program is a direct security response to the world-wide social unrest also being felt strongly in Australia.
During this period, in January of 2044, President Tomas ends his term making way for the second President of the Republic Lauren McCann (Liberal). President McCann’s term in office is a no less difficult than her predecessor and midway through the first year of her term, in an atmosphere of increasing social violence and growing casualties, she issues her first GERI, number 16, declaring country-wide martial law on the 1st of May, 2044.
Adding to the controversy of the wallcom projects is the compulsory chip implant program which requires all residents of walled communities to have embedded identifier microchips; subcutaneous, micro-thin strips based in 360-technology platforms allowing for the provision of a comprehensive data-stream of personal information. The neck and fingertip implants mean that residents can be constantly monitored on multiple readings; Wallcom Corporation™ maintains this is purely for lifestyle enhancement purposes. Social libertarians take up the implant issue, and it becomes a major point of division across the country with lines drawn between wallcom and non-wallcom residents, the former seeing themselves as privileged, the latter as free.
The issue is brought to a head with the ground-breaking Metzner vs Wallcom Corporation case [HCR 2043] where Evan Metzner challenges the right of Wallcom Corp to require compulsory implants of its residents. The High Court of the Republic rules in favour of Wallcom Corp finding that the company has the right to set the terms of residence within its properties, as long as the conditions comply with Federal and State law. It also holds that, despite being a sub-cutaneous procedure, microchip-implanting does not qualify as ‘invasive’. The decision also gives rise to an intense debate around bio-tech enhancements. The Transhumanist movement, advocating that people need to use all available technologies to enhance human capabilities, gains a good deal of ground on the back of the Metzner decision.
Metzner seems to add momentum to the building program itself, also accelerated by visible support from the McCann government, and many new wallcoms are constructed in 2043-46. Some of these are built on bulldozed, forcibly seized, urban properties (GERIs 17-18) further adding to public protest and ill-feeling, but most are constructed outside of major cities on acquired properties in thinly-populated rural and semi-rural areas linked to major cities by high-speed Fast-Trak™ maglev lines.
Further, as highlighted by opponents, funds from compound allotment sales are not as forthcoming in being returned to the public purse and services continue to suffer, a second major round of martial laws is enacted in response to increasingly widespread violent social unrest, protest at wallcom sites and further instances of terrorist attacks. These include the activation and expansion of Army Reserves, formation of citizen militias, greater general access to firearms, and wider powers of detainment and arrest, as incorporated in GERIs 19-22 (2046-47).
2048: President Lauren McCann is re-elected for a second term.
2050: The Jackson Virus – aka J-Virus or JV – outbreak occurs. Theorised to be a highly contagious variant strain of rabies, not influenza as first widely reported, it is recorded as originating in Mildura, in the Mallee region of north-western Victoria, 550 kilometers from Melbourne (800km to Canberra, 1000km to Sydney) in late April, 2050. It is named after the doctor credited with having first identified the virus, Dr Riley Jackson. Mildura is thereafter generally accepted as Ground Zero for the infection.
Taking approximately two weeks to take hold and significantly affect population centres in scattered rural communities, the hitherto unknown highly virulent strain eventually reaches the main east coast population centres of Melbourne, Ballarat, Geelong, Bendigo, Sydney, Canberra, Newcastle and Brisbane at various dates in the period of May to June 2050, with catastrophic effects on the population. Cities located in the west and north of Australia and the more remote outback communities take somewhat longer to succumb to the epidemic, but also eventually fall.
Australia is placed under full quarantine, and with comprehensive international isolation measures put in place, the catastrophe is already being viewed as a major, potentially global, health-threat event. Termed ‘The Fall’, the onset of the Jackson Virus sends social media into a frenzy, with end-of-the-world theories rampant.
As the number of infected rise daily, and law and order begins to break down, President McCann, the second and last President of the First Australian Republic, issues the final General Emergency Response Initiative, number 23, on June 28, 2050; the briefest, but possibly most poignant:
'By order of the Executive of the United Republic of Australia; any infected persons are, under Australian constitutional law, able to be met with fatal intent. Any citizen taking extreme action in respect to terminating the life of an infected person will not be held liable under Australian Law.'
Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra are soon completely overrun by infected, estimated to be in the millions; the remaining non-infected have fled the cities and surrounding suburbs. From June 30 to July 10, 2050, extensive carpet-bombing of these and other satellite cities is carried out by the URA Air Force in an attempt to deny the cities to the infected and to terminate as many as possible. These actions do not wipe out the virus and only serve to further devastate extensive tracts of urban landscape. The last established safe havens for the citizens of the country become the wallcoms; the source of much pre-Fall social division – they, however, are not impregnable and many are swamped in the chaos.
It is held that the Jackson Virus finally claims Australia on the 15th of July, 2050 - the date and wider period known as The Fall - it is the date that infected Australians are now clearly numerically superior to non-infected.
The Fall is a work of fiction by S.T. Campitelli ©2023, all rights reserved.