The Australians to a large degree are still "Good Queen's Men" they still have the "subject" mentality and never had anything like a 2nd amendment. (Their Quasi-Independence for Britain was more a friendly handshake than a Revolutionary War) That being said, the dirty little secret is Australia is essentially still a VAST wilderness with little law enforcement and less that half the estimated guns out there were ever turned in and there are still plenty floating around in the rural areas away from the major population centers.
Don’t sell the Aussies so short. While they did confiscate 700K guns, there were (and are) a hell of a lot more guns than that out there.
According to this article:
http://reason.com/archives/2012/12/22/gun-restrictions-have-always-bred-defian
their police say the compliance rate was only around 20%, and it is a safe bet that such a number is optimistic.
Thus I would say that most Aussie gun owners simply gave the government the finger.