On The Beach and Seeing Australia as a Last Post After Armageddon

Graphic grounds-eye footage of one of the British two-stage thermonuclear device Operation Grapple tests held in the central Pacific in 1957-58. 

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Bombs are tested (1). Some may eventually be used (2) and the end of human existence may result (3). Step 1 has already happened to Australia and 2 and 3 may be to come. See the steps below.

1.  Australia was the testing ground for British fission "A" bombs at Emu Field and Maralinga 
     (map above) and then fusion boosted fission bombs in the Montebello Islands off Western 
     Australia.

     

2.  Australia in reality is a fall back option for US and British SSNs and SSBNs to finally move to 
     after a nuclear exchange. 

Drawn  from an article by Garrett M. Graff in the UK’s Politico Magazine July 14, 2016,  http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/the-grim-task-awaiting-teresa-may-preparing-for-nuclear-armageddon-214049

Theresa May, the new British Prime Minister has, by now, performed the melancholy duty of handwriting what is known as a “Letter of Last Resort”. The letter is secret instructions, to be remain sealed until after Armageddon, about what the UK’s SSBN commanders should do with their Trident missiles if the UK has been destroyed. Theresa May would have written four letters - one to each submarine commander of Britain's 4 SSBNs, HMS Vanguard, HMS Victorious, HMS Vigilant and HMS Vengeance.

The letters are then placed inside of a safe inside another safe, sitting in the control rooms of each SSBN. The safes will only be accessible to the sub’s commander and deputy, who must decide together when Britain has been entirely destroyed.

The letters would probably present options, depending on what has occurred in a nuclear exchange. The actual (one-way to the submarine) intelligence provided to a deep diving submarine during a nuclear exchange might be very limited. It is known, at least, that submarine commanders must check whether BBC’s Radio 4 is still broadcasting. If BBC’s Radio 4 is off the air then it is assumed all of Britain is.

A nuclear exchange would probably mean most bases and ports in the Northern Hemisphere would  be devastated. After checking what signals are received, surviving US and British submarines would see New Zealand or Australia as a place to go.

3.  On The Beach.  The "Famous 1959 film set in Australia. During 1964, in the months following World War III, the conflict has devastated the Northern Hemisphere, polluting the atmosphere with nuclear fallout, killing all life there. Air currents are slowly carrying the fallout south; the only areas still habitable are in the far reaches of the Southern Hemisphere. From Australia survivors detect an incomprehensible Morse code signal coming from the West Coast of the United States. The last American nuclear submarine, USS Sawfish, under Royal Australian Navy command...[see the rest of the plot]"

On The Beach (1959)(below)  - the submarine USS Sawfish is 2 minutes 55 seconds in and a sanitised End of the World (with no bodies or rusty metal on the windy streets). 

THE END