How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse In Australia: Move To Darwin

How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse In Australia: Move To Darwin

Of all the places in this fine country we call home, Darwin is not only blessed with gorgeous afternoon thunderstorms and the best local paper headlines ever – it’s also where you should be heading should the ZomPoc occur.

Perth, not so much. You’re screwed, sorry.

New research from the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Disaster Management and Public Safety models the fictitious spread of disease throughout Australian cities. It was very cleverly commissioned by Xbox Australia, who has State of Decay 2 releasing on Xbox One and Windows 10 today. In the game, you’re in control of a community of survivors – where you decide how to rebuild after the zombie apocalypse begins. Get it? yep, like we said – clever.

So how would we go IRL? The study gives major cities across Australia and New Zealand “Zombie Survival Index” rankings.

The ZSI rankings were estimated by the CDMPS based on a variety of criteria, including the potential rate of zombie infection, situational analysis of the infection’s origin, how the disease would spread, how residents claim they would act, and how well each city would defend themselves against the walking dead and geographical location.

Here’s how the major cities stack up.

Darwin

The safest city is Darwin. Residents in Darwin would be most likely to survive, with a flesh-eating disease spreading at half the speed of the west coast.

Darwin would also be the most inviting city, with 50 per cent of residents willing to let a stranger into their home for protection.

Melbourne

Melbourne beat out Sydney in the ZSI, and we’ll likely never hear the end of it. Melbournians would be most likely to tackle the problem together; seeing higher chances of survival as part of a large group

Sydney

Still better than Perth. Sydneysiders were the most confident of survival, with 40 per cent of residents believing they have what it takes to survive.

Adelaide

They didn’t come in last, but Adelaide residents aren’t a hopeful bunch. The least confident city, with only 30 per cent of residents believing they would survive the outbreak. Only 19 per cent would be willing to let a stranger into their home for protection, too.

Hobart

Family matters most in Hobart, with 40 per cent choosing to stick with their family over other survivors.

Brisbane

A lack of food and water would be our biggest concern (50 per cent), with over half the Queensland population identifying this as their biggest worry.

Perth

Perth would be the fastest to succumb, with nearly 100,000 people infected in the first four days.

Less than one in five Aussies are confident society could withstand such a threat, and most respondents admitted they would sacrifice a neighbour to the walking dead over their family pet.

“Our best chance of survival would be to contain an outbreak early by overpowering and removing zombies from the streets while they were still few in numbers. We would have the best chance of survival if the outbreak began in Darwin, with its isolated location restricting its ability to travel easily, coupled with 50 per cent of residents claiming they would take arms to defend themselves against the walking dead – the highest in the country”, said Prof. Greg Foliente of the Centre for Disaster Management and Public Safety.


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