The author asked this question;
including how well-placed Australia would be in such a crisis situation.

Very badly placed actually. Our situation is very serious.
We are literally at the mercy of a number of countries.
Singapore could have us on the verge of starvation in a few weeks if it wanted.
Any country with a moderate navy or airforce could collapse Australian
economy in three weeks by sinking just one oil tanker and the insurers
would stop the rest.
Despite what Rhosty says there are no Saudi Arabias here or elsewhere
just waiting for the drillers. Why do you think they are filling in
with the tight oil fields in the US, drilling miles down in the ocean
digging up the tundra in Canada etc etc.
As the articles said any place that has been drilled and capped has
just not been worth developing otherwise they would have been a rush
of drilling rigs. The oil companies are now hard up, they are even
selling assets to pay dividends. Their revenues are decreasing.

The author made one mistake, the GFC occurred because peak oil was in
2005 and the rising oil price forced up the price of food and car
owners had a choice, buy food, petrol or pay the mortgage.
Their choice collapsed the mortgage funds and triggered the bomb that
the dopey bankers were sitting on.

Rhrosty, says:
*We are finding quite large reserves of oil in our central deserts, one reportedly, as big as those we used to find in Texas!*

Dream on, this is the reality.

NEW CENTRAL AUSTRALIAN OIL FIELD
25 03 2014
when this amazing piece of news came on: we’re saved; a new oil field has been tapped in central Australia, and it’s even producing twice as much oil as was anticipated. A whole 764 barrels a day. No dear reader, it is seven hundred and sixty four. Not seven hundred and sixty four thousand, just seven hundred and sixty four………. enough to feed Australia’s insatiable thirst for the stuff for, wait for it…… SEVENTY FIVE SECONDS! Appropriately enough, this well is called Surprise #1

Ha Ha Robert, yes it is surprising how often the media run away with
figures like that.
Origin has a tight oil or gas field lease near Coober Peady witch could
be a goer, but as they would need lots of water it could be a non event.
I just can't see thousands of tanker trips a day from the nearest source of water.
It could of course give us a five year buffer while someone invents the magic bullet.
To stand still on production levels, let alone cope with increase, the
world needs to find a new Saudi Arabia every three years.
We did not find one in the last six years and do not look like finding on in the next three,