James Cook was a Lieutenant when he charted the east coast of Australia in 1770. Upon his return to Britain he was promoted to Commander and later embarked on a second voyage. Upon completion of the second voyage he was promoted to Captain.
While the Dutch sighted Australia decades before the British (as early as 1606), there is also circumstantial evidence to suggest the Portuguese sighted the continent in the 1500s. They were trading in Timor which lies less than 700km NW of Australia and actively patrolling the region to prevent Spanish ships trading in the area. Even the Spanish were lured 'down under' with the promises of discovering some 'unknown southern land' and were the first Europeans to discover Vanuatu.
As for uranium, Cdnwolf is quite right, Canada is the largest producer and exporter of uranium in the 2000s, although Kazakhstan is likely to claim the title by 2010. However Australia does have the largest currently known uranium deposits with 24% of the world's uranium reserves.
There is some oil & gas production on mainland Australia, mostly in the Cooper Basin. The Basin stretches between South Australia and Queensland but the amount available is minor in comparison to offshore sites. However it has also been found to be a potential source of geothermal energy with oil drilling having been responsible for the discovery of this information.
South Australia is sparsely populated and the biggest oil production facility is located in Moomba in the more desolate part of that state. Control would be difficult simply because all food, water and spares would have to be trucked in to the site and although a sealed landing strip is available, whose going to have the avgas to fly supplies in/out of the town?
The temperature sits around 38C in summer and 20C in winter and there is minimal rainfall during the year. While oil and gas pipelines do transport those products to cities such as Sydney, patrolling over 1000km of pipeline would also provide massive challenges in the T2k setting.
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