Apperently it does. That is wierd because Australia has one of the biggest and best underground metal scenes in the world and legions of great bands as well.
yeah I think that its exposure to the rest of the world that creates the interest in metal here, and then perhaps only the really good bands get noticed because there is no real support structure for serious metal. Canberra has a bigger metal scene than sydney and its like 1/8th the size. Also metal is bigger in the country than the city, proportionally.