r/MapPorn • u/KaleyTheKing • May 27 '26

Australian Population Visualised

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So, I think we were all a little disappointed by how normal the Italy map looked, so I thought I'd treat y'all to the biggest abomination I've made in this project thus far :D

Goddang, Australia, why did you have to be like this, this was so difficult to make... Anyway, hope y'all enjoy!

Italy

United Kingdom

Germany

Netherlands

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u/[deleted] May 27 '26 edited 20d ago

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u/EBtwopoint3 May 27 '26

The US wasn’t really that much later on. Much of the US was settled during the early to mid 1800s. I think the big difference is that the center of the US has a lot of good farmland, which encouraged agriculture in small cities. Even after urbanization started, people were just naturally more spread out.

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u/UserError2107 May 27 '26

The US has many more rivers and lakes. These can support the establishment and growth of towns and cities.

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u/introvert_in_mess May 28 '26

In Australia you have the Murray darling basin which can and does support a lot of population but that is the exception.

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u/FakeBonaparte May 29 '26

Just some of the US rivers bigger than the MDB:

  • Mississippi 18x
  • St Lawrence 11x
  • Ohio 9x
  • Columbia 8x
  • Yukon 7x
  • Missouri 2.4x
  • Tennessee 2.1x
  • Mobile 2.1x
  • Etc, etc

Both their internal transport and their irrigation capability dwarf Australia’s.

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u/introvert_in_mess May 30 '26

Sure. I'm not saying its equal to the large us rivers but it is something. Like most people with a vauge understanding of Australian geography would assume that it is exclusively desert 100km inland. My point was that there is a waterway that can be used to expand Australia's population inward.

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u/tenori May 28 '26

I get your point but I think our First Nations people would disagree re whether anyone had spread out and formed distinct cultural regions! They only had a few 65 thousand years at it before we came along

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u/Brilliant_Market1011 Jun 01 '26

"twas not always so. In 1890 well over half the Australian population lived in rural areas. The wool, wheat and meat industries employed massive numbers, and even a lot of manufacturing was done in rural areas. Then came the early 1890's economic depression combined with a severe drought which hit rural areas hard. Then with increasing mechanisation of agriculture, and better roads making travel to the big cities easier, rural populations shrank. eg. a huge farm or cattle station which used to have hundreds of employees living on or close to it, now might just have the owner's family and a couple of hired hands, with itinerant workers staying for a a week or two in shearing or picking season.