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Any power on the Pacific is going to lick its chops at the natural resources it could exploit if it just has this barely populated continent. So the Japanese during WW II and the Chinese today. Another area in similar distress is Siberia but they do have the protection of a nuclear armed bear.

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> the Japanese during WW II

"Japan never seriously intended to invade Australia, a fact known to the Australian Government by mid-1942 and confirmed by intelligence reports, principal historian to the Australian War Memorial, Peter Stanley, said yesterday at a conference examining the events of 1942."

https://www.theage.com.au/national/japanese-invasion-a-myth-...

That's not entirely correct. There was a debate among the Navy and Army about whether they should or not or whether isolation was a better option. In the end they opted for isolation because due to Australia's geography (vast unpopulated). There is little doubt that if Japan had succeeded in the Pacific War that they would have gone after Australia (and Indonesia). It would be silly to write them off. The entire war was predicated over control of natural resources for an imagined future Empire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_Japanese_invasion_of_...

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