^^Wouldn't be the 80s here, although there was a belated push for complex manufactures late in that decade so we could be a little Germany....87 crash and 91 recession not helping I guess!
In Respect to Oz's decline, it goes back a fair way, relative who was employed at BHP, was sent over to Korea in the 60s as part of a government mission to help advise on how they could improve their steel making. Laughed when he came back, the steelworks there were more advanced than the state of the art we had.