Regarding lack of funding, one of the founders of Shoes of Prey wrote an in depth blog post on raising a $3M series A round: http://www.22michaels.com/2012/06/how-we-raised-3m-round-of-...

It's a good read, and to me it highlights just how difficult it is to get funding in Australia. To put it in perspective, they are a well established company with solid founders and a proven business model, and they still had a great deal of difficulty raising money.