Australia from an Australian's point of view,
Leaders, Sir Edmond Barton (only because he was the first), Sir Robert Menzies (considered by both sides of Australian politics as the greatest Prime Minister), John Howard or Bob Hawk (considered two great milestone Prime Minister's). Why not John Curtin???
Reason A: Menzies is a Prime Minister of the same era so Curtin is not required.
Reason B: Curtin's only claim to fame is that he was in charge through what is considered the darkest part of WW2 and started the American-Australian alliance. However most of the hard work was done by the people that came before and after him.
UP: I have a couple of suggestions
option 1: The power of the CSIRO: can spend money to finish research. (Reason: Australia is likely to fall behind in the research department very quickly so this will help them keep up.)
option 2: The power of the CSIRO: plus one
for all desert and coast tiles (Reason: will help both the coastal and desert cities keep up with constant flow of immigrants thanks to Leoreth change to the immigration mechanic.)
option 3: The power of the Australian Beaches: all coast tiles produce plus one
and plus one
(reason: this helps the coastal cities as they are the largest and also shows off the second largest industry in Australia, the tourism industry.)
option 4: The power of the Natural Resources: All mining and food resources produce double of their respective resource for trade. (Australia is know for its natural resources and we sell most of these through trade.)
UB: I have designed these to work with their corresponding UP's as well as some extra ones that can just be thrown in for the LOL's
option 1: The Australian Tourism office (replaces customs house): extra power: plus one
and
for all coastal tiles.
option 2: The Australian Trade office (replaces customs house): extra power: plus one
for all coastal tiles and plus one trade route.
option 3: Australian Mine (replaces the mine tile improvement): Double resources from mining node for trade.
option 4: The CSIRO (replaces lab): plus one
on all coastal and desert tiles.
option 5: Stadium (replaces amphitheater): plus one happiness for every hit sporting event owned. (Australian's love their sport!!!)
UU:
option 1: Digger (replaces Infantry): starts with City Garision 3 (see The Rats of Tobruk for details as to why.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rats_of_Tobruk )
option 2: Australian SAS (replaces Paratrooper): starts with extra experience to spend. (considered among one of the best special forces in the world as recognized by the British SAS and the American Navy Seals)
option 3: Australian Patrol Boat (replaces Destroyer): don't know what the extra power could be but this boat makes up the bulk of the Australian navy designed to be fast so that it can patrol that vast Australian coast line. maybe increased movement speed.
Capital: I know Canberra is the capital of Australia, however, it is to close to Sydney and Melbourne on the map so I would argue that Sydney should be the capital since it is that city that most people from outside of Australia believe is the capital. Also if the start date is to be 1900 then Canberra is not yet to be established let alone be the capital.
Core and Historical area. Core should really be the complete Australian continent. With historical in New Zealand and some of the other Pacific Islands.
Because 1900 is very late, maybe the start date should be 1788 or later making it a trigger when someone founds a city there. With the core just being the East Coast around to Melb tile and Tas.
