''Australian Exceptionalism''

[Ban my account ffs!]

Australia has a wealth of natural resources for such a small population and is in a perfect spot geographically to provide those resources to resource hungry growing economies of south and east Asia.

You have low debt ratios because you are an export based economy.  You're well off because you're living off of the debt of other nations that buy your products.

I don't think it was anything in particular that Australia did... you're just in the right place at the right time with the right rocks in the ground.

Prior to the past 25 years, Australia was in the middle of nowhere and was seen as a quaint nation of friendly people with endearing accents who said funny words and somehow survived an inordinate number of insanely poisonous animals.  And in many respects, you still seem to have many of those qualities.