By the early 1980s Australia was not only the largest producer and the largest exporter of wool of any country in the world, but also the second largest exporter of sugar, and a significant supplier on the world market of fruits, dairy produce, meat and wheat. Yet it was in the minerals and energy area that the most striking developments were occurring, since it was now as well the world's largest exporter of iron ore, alumina and mineral sands, and the second largest exporter of coal, bauxite, nickel, lead and zinc. It was an important world supplier too of copper, tin, tungsten, silver and gold, the largest producer of bauxite, and the second largest producer of aluminium. Moreover, it was well on the way to being the largest producer of coal, with reserves of 600 billion tonnes. There were estimates indeed that by the year 2000 it would be exporting three times the amount of coking coal it was already doing, between seven and ten times as much steam coal, as well as 50 per cent more iron ore and 50 per cent more aluminium and alumina. By any account it was a resource rich country.

Where did its exports go? Two-thirds of its trade was with the free-market economies of the Pacific Basin area, with the Pacific islands, New Zealand, the ASEAN countries, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada and the United States. That proportion thereafter continued to grow. Moreover if one took away the United States and Canada, and added in their place China, India and the other South Asian countries, two-thirds of its trade was still with its own region. This was growing enormously.