The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1091 - 817: The Completion of the Lake Eyre Canal

If Arthur remembered correctly, the two princes in line before Prince Juan historically gave up their rights to the throne in 1933.

Although that scene hadn't happened yet, it wasn't difficult to make it happen.

Taking these into consideration, Arthur didn't stop the romance between Anna and Prince Juan, and eventually, the two finally reached the step of engagement.

By the end of 1933, Arthur finally met the last King of Spain, Alfonso XIII.

After discussions between the two, the engagement of Prince Juan and Princess Anna Miller was set for early next year.

This was good news for both parties. For Arthur, the fact that Princess Anna could find someone she loved was the best thing that could happen to her as a princess of the royal family.

And for Alfonso XIII, having his son find a very powerful ally was very helpful for his own plans to restore the monarchy.

Although Australasia was quite far from Spain, it was still recognized as the third world power.

Such strength was completely sufficient to support his restoration, which kept Alfonso XIII smiling almost throughout the whole time, his smile very sincere.

Meanwhile, the media outside was commenting that the union between the two royal families was a match-up by the Spanish royals.

A royal family that had lost its throne and a newly established royal family couldn't be compared in status.

Moreover, Spain itself was only a second-tier European country, while Australasia was one of the world's top nations.

This was like the richest person in an ordinary city marrying one of the top three richest in the country, with the city's richest definitely being the one reaching up.

Besides Princess Anna's marriage, there were a few other important pieces of news at the end of 1933.

One of them was the official completion of the Lake Eyre Canal.

Construction of the Lake Eyre Canal began in early 1929 and was completed at the end of 1933, taking almost five years.

During these five years, the Australasian Government had invested a large amount of manpower, material resources, and funds, and finally completed the whole stretch of the canal.

On the day of its completion, Arthur attended the celebration for the completion of the Lake Eyre Canal and witnessed the "grand occasion" of a large volume of water pouring into Lake Eyre.

To the naked eye, what had been a parched Lake Eyre suddenly became moist. Just a few days in, a large amount of seawater surged into the interior of Lake Eyre.

This seawater continuously soaked the surrounding land through the soil, making the formerly arid area around Lake Eyre suddenly moist.

The domestic media in Australasia extensively reported the completion of the canal and began to promote the beneficial impact that the influx of a large amount of water into Lake Eyre would have on the surrounding land.

However, even if there were benefits, they would definitely be in the distant future. The arid environment around Lake Eyre couldn't be solved in a short time; the canal was more of a long-term benefit.

The day after the completion of Lake Eyre, Arthur took a cruise on a more than 20,000-ton ship, traveling from South to North to experience the entire Lake Eyre Canal.

Because the canal was built with the consideration of carrying some of the transportation for the surrounding mining resources and industrial base, the canal's width and depth were even greater than previously expected.

A more than 20,000-ton cruise ship traveling on the canal wouldn't cause any congestion.

It was also on this day that a large number of transport ships began to navigate through the canal, going from South to North or from North to South, transporting a large amount of mineral resources from the central region of Australia to other cities and domestically and internationally through waterways.

Especially for the Broken Hill Industrial Base, because of the completion of the Lake Eyre Canal, there was one more transportation option available.

The development of the industrial base also became smoother, and by the end of 1933, it had entered its maximum production state and successfully accommodated over 500,000 workers.

The Broken Hill Industrial Base entering its maximum production state effectively alleviated the employment pressure brought on by the large population in the surrounding areas.

Around the Broken Hill Industrial Base were Victoria State, the Capital Region, Sydney Territory, and New South Wales State—four major administrative areas and the most densely populated region in Australasia.

This also indicated one thing: the development potential of the Broken Hill Industrial Base far exceeded expectations.

Arthur made an important decision about this, namely to start a new phase of construction for the Broken Hill Industrial Base and to turn the Broken Hill and Leonora Industrial Bases into a true dual industrial center layout for the East and the West.

These two industrial centers each had their advantages. The Leonora Industrial Base was near the mineral resources of West Australia, with extremely rich mineral resources and close proximity to the Australian interior, there was no need to worry about the enemy's bombing in a short period of time.

Although the mineral resources around the Broken Hill Industrial Base were not as rich as those of the Leonora Industrial Base, they were certainly not scarce.

More importantly, there was a large population around the Broken Hill Industrial Base, which also indicated that the development potential of the Broken Hill Industrial Base might be even greater than what Arthur had once hoped for the Leonora Industrial Base.

This would have to be judged later by the total production and profits of the Broken Hill Industrial Base.

But regardless, it was necessary to continue expanding the scale of the Broken Hill Industrial Base.

In peacetime, Arthur didn't want such a large-scale industrial expansion. But with war looming, expanding the industry could do no harm.

After all, this war would be even more brutal than World War I, with resource consumption far exceeding that of the previous conflict.

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This also meant that as long as the various war materials manufactured in Australasia could safely be transported to Europe, there would be no worry about sales.

Especially since there was a possibility Australasia would clash with the Island Nation in the Pacific Ocean, it seemed necessary to crush the enemy in industrial scale and output in both industry and economy aspects.

Currently, Australasia's industrial scale was already several times that of the Island Nation. If the industrial scale continued to expand, Arthur really didn't know how they could possibly lose this war.

That's why Arthur was reluctant to pour a large amount of funds into the navy. Otherwise, given the current huge industrial and economic gap between Australasia and the Island Nation, the Island Nation could not catch up with Australasia in the naval arms race.

The economy and industry of the Island Nation had already determined that, although their naval investment was substantial, it was also limited.

Australasia was different. If Arthur went crazy, they could completely achieve the exaggerated feat of building two warships for every one the Island Nation constructed.

Since the establishment of Australasia, the government had never borne an excessively exaggerated debt. If they truly went all out, the Island Nation's economic scale was absolutely no match.

But unfortunately, Arthur would not exhaust the country's potential for such an adversary.

Moreover, with aircraft carriers becoming stronger and missiles advanced by who knows how many years, Arthur didn't think that relying on Australasia's current naval size, they would lose against the Islanders.

Arthur had no specific demands for the new phase of construction of the Broken Hill Industrial Base, but he also expressed his expectation, which was to form an east-west industrial center layout in conjunction with the Leonora Industrial Base.

This also meant that the scale of the Broken Hill Industrial Base was to catch up with the Leonora Industrial Base.

The Leonora Industrial Base could already accommodate over 1.5 million workers, while the Broken Hill Industrial Base was currently but a fraction of Leonora.

To achieve a scale of 1.5 million workers meant that the Broken Hill Industrial Base had to expand its current scale by two times.

This involved a problem, as the current Industry Secretary, David Paul Oliver, was actually conservative.

In order for the Broken Hill Industrial Base to develop smoothly, Arthur specially granted more power to the Governor of the special district of the Broken Hill Industrial Base, ensuring that their planning for the construction of the base wouldn't be too influenced by Minister David.

As time was about to move into 1934, Arthur also decided to make the final preparations for war, gradually transitioning Australasia into a state of war.

The most important of these was the construction concerning transportation.

Over the past 30 plus years, Australasia had already caught up with the European Nations in terms of railways and highways, and the transportation environment had improved greatly.

But Arthur was not content with this.

In Arthur's meeting with the new Minister of Transportation, Perry Saklin, Arthur laid out his requirements for the Transportation Department, which was to massively build highways in 1934.

Speaking of highways, they were no longer unfamiliar to Australasia now.

From the most rudimentary roads to the now relatively smooth highways, the efforts of the Transportation Department deserved praise.

It was proven that highways were very helpful for regional exchanges and communications.

The speed limit on the highways had been raised to 75 kilometers per hour, which also meant that under most circumstances, cars were the fastest mode of transport next to airplanes and airships.

Considering various factors, cars were the fastest mode of cheap transport and the cheapest among the fastest.

For this reason, people from all over requested the government to extend the highways to their cities, so they could also enjoy the convenience of high-speed travel.

One thing that can't be ignored is that the development of the car industry allowed for the continual construction of highways everywhere.

The earliest cars couldn't reach speeds of 75 kilometers per hour. But now, Australasia's car brands are countless, and the fastest luxury sports cars can even go over 90 kilometers per hour.

However, because the cars aren't stable enough yet, the speed limit on highways remains at 75 kilometers per hour.

Even in urban areas, the speed limit in the city is no more than 30 kilometers per hour, and the suburban roads no more than 50 kilometers per hour.

This regulation is mostly to ensure the safety of pedestrians on the road. After all, without traffic cameras, most drivers didn't have many inhibitions while driving, and road rage was quite common.

This necessitated the Security Department to increase the number of police officers within the city. In particular, traffic police have become one of the most important departments in city policing.

Now that technology is not so advanced, to monitor the speed of vehicles on each road, these traffic police must personally control it.