In June Yoav Zitun in Ynetnews gave a detailed account of Israel's mass evacuation plans. The Ministerial Committee on Home Front Affairs discussed a plan for a mass evacuation in the event of a missile attack. According to the plan, entire cities will be moved to southern Israel around Eilat and the Arava area.
He cited one source at the Home Front Protection Ministry who explained that towns near Ariel may also serve as temporary evacuation centers. The plan also applies to cases of natural disasters at the national level and is a reworking of one of Israel's contingency plans.
According to the plan, citizens of central and northern Israel will be housed in schools, educational establishments and even boarding schools, bed and breakfasts and hotels in cases of national emergency.
Home Front Protection Minister Matan Vilnai said that after a briefing from the national security adviser, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu green-lighted the plan. It will be introduced at various government ministers after being approved by the ministerial committee. The plan is estimated to cost hundreds of millions of shekels. (www.ynetnews.com)
London Olympics Mass Evacuation
A London Olympic mass evacuation is at least on the plan and the huge strategic monolithic task it would involve has had people from the Mayor's office to the pop music world enthralled. (www.londons-olympic.com)
One can only imagine the scenarios it might involve. In WWII the children of London were sent into the country and even one group went sent to Canada only to find the ship sunk by a Nazi submarine.
Australia's WWII Brisbane Line
The infamous Brisbane Line which was a controversial defence proposal allegedly formulated during WWII to concede the northern portion of Australia in the event of an invasion by the Japanese.
Although a plan to prioritise defence in the vital industrial regions between Brisbane and Melbourne in the event of invasion had been proposed in February 1942, it was rejected by Labor Prime Minister John Curtin and the War Cabinet.
A Major in the Defence Department had leaked information to this effect to Labor Politician Eddie Ward that the previous Government had considered the idea. This created a national furore and the Brisbane Line took root in the imagination of many Australians. The term 'Brisbane Line' was first mentioned by US General Douglas MacArthur during a press conference in March 1943.
A Royal Commission in 1943 found that no such idea or plan had been proposed, and later MacArthur distanced himself from his previous comments once he realised they were in fact, in error. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisbane_Line)
Natural Disasters
Mark Tronson notes there are numerous natural disaster plans across Australia and these are documented on the Internet with a Google search under "Australian Natural Disaster Plans" and one such result was: (www.ga.gov.au/hazards/emergency-management/preparedness.html)
He recalls the Thredbo natural disaster of a catastrophic landslide that occurred at the village and ski resort of Thredbo NSW on 30 July 1997. Two ski lodges were destroyed, and a total of 18 died. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Thredbo_landslide)
Thursday 31 July at 7:30 am, a forward medical command post was established, set up in a lodge located 50 metres (164 feet) from the site of the disaster. From this a host of agencies came to the area to assist from the SES to the local clergy who ultimately were responsible for a multi-faith religious service which was televised nationally.
Australia has numerous cyclones, floods and fires and the Royal Commission into the February 2009 Victorian Fires around Marysville illustrated how even the best laid plans can go to naught. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Saturday_bushfires)
The north Queensland cyclones of 2010 were much the same. Cyclone Ului struck causing infrastructural damage from the storm amounted to A$20 million ($18 million USD) and agricultural losses reached A$60 million ($54 million USD). (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Ului)
Unspoken evacuation plans
Mark Tronson asks whether Australia, like Israel has any contingencies in place should the worst happen, and it not be a natural disaster that hits the continent, but a well planned and executed military invasion. There is precious little on the Internet. Rather there are innumerable researches on Darwin had the Japanese invaded and indeed Mark Tronson has himself written on this subject which he believes is the secret to Australia's security.
http://au.christiantoday.com/article/the-japanese-bombing-of-darwin-19-february-1942-had-strategic-anomalies-that-proved-in-australias-favour/12834.htm
In this article he argues that the Japanese faced strategic anomalies that proved in Australia's favour. These were that Darwin's port and shipping facilities needed to be destroyed and any attempt to reconstruct, killed off. Darwin's infrastructure needed to be destroyed and constantly laid waste. And the air strips in northern Australia needed to be incapacitated.
Herein was one of the problems the Japanese faced, in that a bare air strip could be constructed in the Australian bush within a few hours. There was no shortage of land. Many bulldozers and graders were bought to the north as part of northern Australia's protection plan in 1941; and by 1942 there were air strips from Katherine to Darwin in a broad semi-circle. These were frequently bombed in 1942-'43.
The Japanese underestimated how difficult it was to achieve their strategic aims as the Northern Territory is so vast. The solid advantage was with the Australian defences. The Japanese bombed on 64 occasions and yet the overall damage proved strategically minimal. (The tragedy of civilian casualties in Darwin notwithstanding).
This was one of the reasons the initial bombing destruction of Darwin was kept under wraps, because the authorities realised that strategically, they retained the upper hand and needed to keep this information close to their chest.
Rather, it was from northern Australian 'war time' air strips that the longest USAF WWII bombing raids were made on the Japanese; north to the Philippines and the southern most islands of Japan beyond.
There was something of a master plan for the defence of northern Australia and in particular Darwin, but when Darwin was bombed on the 19 February 1942, and with communications destroyed, it took more than a few days to get co-ordination back in order. Mark Tronson believes that in essence, little has changed. Australia's vastness is such an asset for defence.
He recalls an incident in the 1980's when with his young family returning to the main land from Montague Island (NSW south coast) on the ferry one winter's night. He was struck by the huge distances between the main land town settlements – identified simply by the town lights of Moruya Heads, Tuross Heads and Narooma.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html
