Time to weigh in
(Opps I thought this was my Weight watchers meeting)
The way I see it was when Australia was colonised by the first inhabitants over time they learnt the cycles of nature (they may have made many mistakes however without any records we would never know)
From learning by watching nature and the cycles they became masters of the landscape, able to provide the basics to survive and delevop there culture over a space on 1000's of years
When the British came to Australia they brought with them agricultral practises developed over 1000's of years from a different climate.
Applying the same practices that were used successfully in Britian failed miserably.
we have had 200 years of trying understand the climate and develop new practises however we have also have had population growth exponetially
through science we have seen advances in Wheat, and Wool and literally our country was built off the merino's back
However we have taken yet baby steps in understanding the unique climate, soil, and flora in our wide brown land compared to the first inhabitants due to time scale IMO