You’d be surprised what a resourceful group of people could do with “uninhabitable land”.
Eskimos live on ice sheets and many millions live in desert areas.
Even early American explorers called the Great Plans a “wasteland”.
There’s just no comparison. Number #1, Australians never had the frontiersman drive like we had, they were founded as a penal colony. Number #2, the interior is pure desert. It is the equivalent of trying to farm in Death Valley. And #3, they’re pretty much screwed because they surrendered their guns and are now under COVID lockdowns.