properly pissed off Australians can be an angry bunch

I know this to be true as I've been one...A pissed off Aussie. Lol.

The invading force wasn't really stretched thin. They were operating of aircraft carriers and had a lot of resources at their disposal. Had they invaded by land after the initial bombing they would have taken Darwin, Townsville and Broome before Australia even knew it. Lucky that didn't happen. The fleet ended up being all but destroyed in the battle at Midway with the carriers sunk and that inhibited their operations somewhat. Thats when the Kokoda campaign in PNG was happening too. The Japanese were running out of rubber and oil, steel also...This is why they needed Australia. It was a near thing really. They almost got it.