Oz (2000 AD)

Oz Judges recruitment ad

Oz is the postwar Australia, dominated by the Sydney-Melbourne Conurb megacity. Several other cities and towns exist outside of the conurb. It is part of the Hiroshima Accord.

The centre of the country is the Radback: a vast nuclear desert.

Ozzers are known for being laid back and irreverent, and their society is one of the most free and relaxed on Earth. Skysurf legend Chopper took sanctuary there as a result.

The main newspaper in Sydney-Melbourne is the Oz Observer, , local beer includes Thunderchunder XXXX, and one of the main airports is Ozport.

Cities

• Sydney-Melbourne Conurb: Sunny, sprawling besides a blue sea. The Sydney Opera House has survived the wars.

• Okker: A city located in the northeast state of Bananaland (former Queensland).

• Taswegia: A small city in Tasmania.

• Perth Island: The southwest of Oz has cracked off from the rest of the continent.

• Brisbania: future Brisbane. Chopper's ex-girlfriend Charlene moved there.

• Drongo Springs: small Radback settlement

• Chunder Range: settlement in the northwest

History

Morton Judd and his acolytes fled to Australia after his aborted coup in Mega-City One. Over the next forty years, hidden under Ayer's Rock, he built up an army of clones - the Judda - brainwashed into seeing him as a god.

Australia's mutant population had been forced into 'relocation camps' in the Radback. Years later, when the camps became a political embarrassment, the Judges forced the mutants out into the Radback where most would die. Some of the hardened survivors would form terrorist groups like Oz Mutanty.

At some point, the city had exported soap operas to Brit-Cit but when the British economy fell, the standing set at Erin Bay and its robot actors were abandoned.

Erin Bay, soap opera ghost town

By the early 22nd century, Oz had a reputation as a paradise for its beaches and seafood you could usually not die from, and the Eric Bana Block Skysurfing Club was turning a once-obscure sport global.

Conflicting Sov Block agents and Radback gangs would all try to capture famed artist (and psi) Jiri Rasputin in 2101. (The gangs would give up the chase and just smash up Erin Bay)

In 2108, the Sydney-Melbourne Conurb became the first city where Supersurf was held legally. Supersurf 8 and 9 were both won by Jug McKenzie, "the Wizard of Oz". Supersurf 10 would see Marlon "Chopper" Shakespeare escape the MC-1 iso-cubes and hoof it to Oz in order to challenge McKenzie, increasing media attention to fever pitch. This proved handy for Mega-City One: the Judda had begun their first raids and after being tracked to Oz, Judge Dredd was able to travel there and seek Oz Judge aid under the pretence of arresting Chopper.

Supersurf 19

After Dredd, Judge Bruce, and other Oz forces defeated the Judda - which involved nuking Ayer's Rock - Dredd did indeed plan to arrest Chopper. He let the youth fly Supersurf 10, where Jug McKenzie defeated him: proving the Ozzer to be the greatest skysurfer of all time. When Chopper attempted to escape, Jug "accidentally" stopped Dredd from shooting him and when Dredd tried to arrest him too, Bruce snapped and overrode him: "we give the orders round here!". Chopper flew off into the Radback.

While Oz and Mega-City One remained allies, Supersurf 10 and the destruction of the Rock left some lingering diplomatic tension throughout 2110. Mega-City One lodged an official protest at Chopper being given asylum and Jug McKenzie could not enter the city in case he was arrested. When the Wizard was captured in the Cursed Earth, Dredd deliberately hoped he'd be injured so he could be rushed to the city for aid and then arrested - unfortunately, Oz's support was needed for an upcoming trade conference so they had to let him go. For Oz's part, they suspected some Judda had escaped but searched on their own rather than informing Mega-City One.

Chopper made friends with an aboriginal man named Smokie and learned how to live in the Radback wild. He travelled back to the Conurb in late 2110 to purchase Nit-Nurse and made contact with Jug and his friends. He started a romance with surf fan Charlene and had an informal rematch with Jug, which Chopper won. (What Chopper didn't know at the time was that Jug had been letting his training lapse and started getting too drunk & out of shape.)

During the global Deros crisis in 2112, suburban Oz was terrorised by a giant bunyip.

Syd-Mel Conurb bay

After the brutal Supersurf 11 in Mega-City Two, Chopper settled down with Charlene and McKenzie with Doreen at Drongo Springs. The settlement turned out to be the intersection of a hundred "songlines" and StigCorp planned to level the town to get to them (and get revenge on Chopper). StigCorp blackmailed Chief Judge Bob into allowing it with compromising photos and had Judge Bruce moved to Chunder Range so he couldn't interfere. The skysurfers fought back and won, and Chopper gained Bob's allegiance after atealing the photos back.

The country was among those who fought Sabbat's zombies on Judgement Day. Judge Bruce was one of the pan-judicial strike force that ended it, at the cost of his own life.

A Sydney-Melbourne zoom-train crashed in the harbour in 2117, tragically killing McKenzie's wife and son. In the same year, Deputy Chief Judge Bruce "Dago Red" McDoggler attended the InterDep conference on the Moon.

Oz had a hit Tri-D show in Strewth, What A Loon! from 2120-23, where Chug "Chugger" McNasty risked his life for mass-market entertainment. The show was about to be axed by Oz media baron Hubert Murder (legally dead and cryogenically-revived for 24 hours each year), so McNasty tried to revive it by capturing the fugitive Mean Machine. That went as well as you'd expect.

Sydney-Melbourne was one of the targets of Ula Danser, the self-styled "Global Response".

Duke Stavros, the Brit-Cit prince consort, was sent to Oz on a diplomatic mission in 2126.

Judge Hogan tracked the final Judda, Jonah, to Perth Island but failed to stop him escaping to Mega-City One. Under cover of an exchange program, he was sent to MC-1 during the 2126 Global Justice Summit (which included Chief Judge Keith). Hogan teamed up with Dredd - who was not happy to learn Oz had been keeping quiet about surviving Judda for political reasons - to end the threat.

Jug McKenzie died in summer 2126, flying his powerboard into the Radback's lethal Electric Canyon after he was diagnosed with cancer. The funeral was the largest the skysurf world had seen, with champions past and present crossing the Conurb Harbour.

East-Meg Two strategist Anatoli Kazan fled to Oz and handed himself to the Mega-City One consulate there.

The Chaos Bug reached Oz in 2134 and the nation sealed its borders to prevent further infection.

In 2140, during the rule of Chief Judge Barnett, a swarm of nanobots ("a Turing cloud") formed in the Radback and headed towards the Sydney-Melbourne Conurb, having made contact with the Dreamtime.

The Judges, unwilling to accept the supernatural influence on the crisis, tried desperately to find a way to keep the cloud out and not resort to a nuclear strike - this failed and so did the nuclear strike, as the cloud took Judda form and devastated the city. The aboriginal "cleverman" Karadji Wally was able to summon protective spirits to stop the threat.

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Judges

Oz Judges (the uniform is normally coloured black)

The Oz Judges boast that they'll "take anyone", even considering foreign citizens or ex-criminals. Cloning and training children are not done. Judges are also extremely laidback and casual. All of this makes many foreign Judges, including Dredd, see them as undisciplined.

In actual fact, the Oz Judges are a highly efficient force that believes in getting on with their citizens. They will turn a blind eye to certain discretions and don't take some of the more authoritarian tacts of their foreign counterparts. In 2109, Oz Judges were able to 'arrest Dredd' so he coudn't interfere with Supersurf: a trick that was convincing enough fool the Judda. When it comes to combat, Oz Judges have been lethally effective. The early Justice Department had no qualms about deporting and assaulting mutants.

Chief Judge Barnett

Unlike most megacities, the Oz Chief Judge is elected.

Mega-City One is allied to Oz and they cooperated to defeat the Judda, and later to occupy Ciudad Barranquilla. However, the two have clashed over policy: Judge Bruce faced down Dredd and denied him a shot at Chopper, so Dredd attempted to find a way to bust Jugs Mackenzie later in the year; and due to the nuking of Ayers Rock, Sydney-Melbourne kept quiet while tracking down remaining Judda.

The Judges operate out of the Grand Hall of Justice on Hogan Plaza.

Mongoose RPG

In the early 2000s Dredd RPG from Moongoose, extra details were invented for Oz:

• It leads the world in tri-d exports like The Folks Over The Fence, Killer Koala Killer, and Ripper Face-Jobs

• 80% of the population live in and around Sydney-Melbourne

• Aboriginals live in The Blue, a zone between the main cities and the Radback

• While it has a multicultural community - including Sino, Indian, Greek, and African communities - immigration laws were made much harsher in 2103 in the name of 'overcrowding'

• Oz is hostile towards New Zealand (now Aotearoa) and New Pacific City, due to disagreements over Oz's exploitation of the Antarctic

• Oz Judges are recruited at "any age over 16", riding on Trikes

• Professional pirates are an issue, targeting the cargo tankers entering Oz waters and slaughtering the crew in each attack; Oz Justice Department is aware someone is leaking information to the pirates and is investigating. Amateur pirates called "weekenders" will stay in Oz waters and board tourist vessels "for a laugh", usually stealing the beer and a few creds before sailing off. The Judges cheerfully ignore the "weekenders" and some of the Judges are weekenders on their days off.

Notes

Oz was portrayed as every 1980s stereotype of Australia, and the depiction still holds.

"Ocker" is a derogatory term for some Queenslanders, ala "bumpkin" or "redneck".