[itumel]

Australia moved from the much weaker Oceania Football Confederation, apparently in 2006, to a better Asian Football Confederation, better in the sense that the competition was stronger but not by much (if you put aside Iran, Japan and South Korea). Qualifying from this region is not nearly as tough as qualifying from other more competitive regions.

Australia as a country is known to spend real money on sports. They are able to produce top athletes, that's not a problem.

Australia has been able to participate in the Confed Cup and World Cup tournaments which helps boost its ranking because more points are allocated for participating in those tournaments.

Whether Australia poses a real threat to the dominant powers, that's a different story altogether. Moving to a Asia surely paid off dividends for them though.