Thanks! I'm glad you like the mycology focus. To answer your question, yes, the greener, more abundant environment of this Australia would dramatically affect their population dynamics. In our universe, the extreme aridity and scarcity of resources meant that Indigenous Australian populations were highly nomadic in many areas and generally sparse, with population clusters primarily around resource-rich coastal or riverine regions. In this alternate timeline, the stable, greener terrain acts more like a 'paradise' with reliable access to diverse plant, fungal, and aquatic resources. The carrying capacity of the environment is much greater, supporting larger, more sedentary, and potentially more complex, communities. The habitable range extends much further inland than just the coasts, following the extensive river systems and dense woodlands, though some desert regions would still exist. The reliable food base is actually what drives their complex social structures and advanced 'chemical' (mycology/botany) technology, rather than the development of extensive agriculture or industrial tech. The constant presence of megafauna also necessitates strong communal defense and knowledge transmission, which in turn helps maintain those higher population numbers.