Having recently acquired my own land in OGF, I have started work on the capital city of Myola. But first, a brief introduction to the basis of this country.

Background

New Austland is intended to reflect Australia and New Zealand (as suggested by its catchy name). The attributes of New Austland, both natural and artificial, should seem reasonably familiar if one has lived or travelled in either country.

For example, the WIP capital city of Myola is located slightly inland from a river mouth and a large bay. Every Australian state and territory capital (except Canberra) is located in a similar position. This was due to the early European settlers deliberately choosing these locations for practical reasons (i.e. trade, agriculture and transport).

Objectives

I am aiming to create New Austland as an 'improved version' of an Australian/New Zealand city. Those who are Australians or Kiwis may recognise some key features already in Myola that are characteristics of cities from these two countries.

What constitutes a 'better' country or city is obviously subjective. To me, there are many issues present in Australian cities that can be addressed. This is, in fact, my day job. So I do have some experience and knowledge in this area. I might go into some specific measures in later posts. For now, have a quick look at what I have done so far in Myola if you would like a general idea of what I am talking about.

New Austland will not be built as a fully-planned country. Instead, settlements will show patterns of historical organic growth followed by retrofitting of improvements in the recent past.

As such, I hope to use this as a project to show what can be achieved in real life throughout similar cities. It is very possible to make better habitats for humans and geofiction can be a useful tool to showcase the potential of creativity and imagination.