Challenge #01569-D108: Just Like Home

Australian States and Territories named by the British: Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania (formerly Van Diemen's Land).
Australian States and Territories named by the newly-fledged Australians: Northern Territory, South Australia, Western Australia, Australian Capital Territory.

See a pattern? -- RecklessPrudence

The populace of New Australia spread out into their assorted wide, brown lands. In typical colonial innovation and ingenuity, they named the continents after their old states and territories. New Queensland, Novo South Wales, New Victoria, and so forth. New Australia was a warmer planet than Earth, prone to deserts and hostile life forms. But that was nothing new for Australians.

Though some continent names were complicated, they were quickly abbreviated in the typical Australian style. In three generations, they were Nu'kinsl'nd, Nu'Suthoz, Nu'act, Nu'Vicky, Nu'Tazzie and so on. None of the continents so named had any relationship to their original placement in their origin island/continent. But they did have an intense relationship with the general environment. Nu'kinsl'nd, for example, features thick rainforests, blasting deserts with intermittent plainlands, and is ringed by deadly coral reefs. Nu'act is mostly a dormant super-volcano known for its random expulsions of deadly gasses[1].

Most hostile of all was Nuwa, a mountainous desert with harsh winds and a tendency to spontaneously combust in the summer[2]. Most of it, like Western Australia, was extremely hostile desert, but it was rich in mineral wealth. Fortunately, the N'Ozzies were already used to building some towns under the surface of the baking earth. It also lead to the 'elevator oven' or 'liftbaker', a simple set of pulleys and a black, metal box that was designed to rise to the heat and, after some interesting work with sensor systems, return to the cooler interior when the roast was nearly done.

N'Ozzies became a culture of engineers. Adversity and necessity were ever the parents of invention, and the entire planet of N'Oz prospered on its own[3]. But that never stopped the N'Ozzies from making things up, making new concepts, and making do.

Australia's first space program technically happened on the colony of N'Oz.

The N'Oz star system had four fellow colony planets. One that was scorching and mostly a desert, even after terraforming. The colonists named it Woopwoop. On the other extreme was an icy world that they ended up naming Melb'n. Of course, by that time, the colonists had become a little more innovative with place names.

Even so, it's advisable for a N'Ozzie to never be allowed to name something. They will get right to the point without any kind of poetry at all.

[1]: So not that far off from the original ACT.

[2] : Rather a lot like Queensland, but Queensland was already taken.

[3]: And possibly because there was nowhere else for N'Ozzies to sell their innovations to for short-term profit.

[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / fotofritz]

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