Businesses would be bankrupted. Opponents of the beach volleyball stadium at Bondi warned of shark attacks. Rumor spread that John Farnham had been booked to perform at the opening ceremony. Few of these fears have come true. Business is humming.
Poor people are still poor, but remain housed.
Most tourists have survived. The only Finns sighted at Bondi were in the stands watching beach volleyball. Why disaster should be so often predicted in modern Australia is a puzzle. Perhaps the nation suffers from crisis deprivation-only natural in a place so calm and prosperous that the most urgent political issue is whether the Prime Minister should apologize for something he didn't do 50 years ago. Whatever the reason, catastrophes do nothing more in Australia than loom.