EXTRATERRESTRIAL AUSTRALIAS PREDICTED

Interplanetary travel is still some way off but Queensland academics are already fretting about the possible implications, fearing that greedy explorers will create extraterrestrial Australias:

Doctor Toni Johnson-Woods says she and her colleagues found there is a prevailing belief that other planets and their natural resources are there simply to be exploited.

"The focus is on exploitation of the minerals. Basically, it's just Australia all over again," she said.

"You go out like the British did to Australia, you take everything you bloody can out of a place, and then you ping off."

She says the "spirit of exploration" that has marked the space age appears to have given way to thinking that is closer to that of pre-20th century colonialism.

"There's also an idea that there's nothing already on Mars, which I presume there isn't, in the same way that Australia had that terra nullius, like there's nothing in Australia, so, 'we're just going to go there, take what we need and leave'," she said.

"You put a footprint somewhere, it's never the same again," she said.

"I can just see bubblegum on the undercarriage of a space station... it doesn't take long, and if we do destroy a planet that's uninhabitable, is that a problem? It's an ethical issue."

Yep, that sounds exactly like what happened in Australia. Thank God we've been able to fall back on eucalyptus oil and koala fur.

Exploitation isn't the only worry:

Dr [John] Cokley says the social and environmental mistakes made during the opening up of Australia - and in particular its rugged mining regions - could serve as examples of how not to establish communities in space.

"The other thing is that space is not an infinite resource. If we go to the Moon and litter the Moon and wreck it, there's not another one just down the road.

Like gold-rush Kalgoorlie, human outposts in space are destined to have plenty of brothels, breweries, pubs and hotels. Cool, sounds like a great holiday destination despite the empty beer bottles, used condoms and pre-chewed gum that'll litter the place.

Humans are evil, there's no doubt about it.