Sorry, but they don't get a pass on that (the logistics). They've had a presence in Australia since at least December 2014 (when the Model S became available here). If decisions were made from the US without at least consulting the local staff, it's inexcusable. This stuff should not have been a huge surprise. (Although I can, to a certain extent, give them some leeway for stuffing up the Tasmanian deliveries - but even there, it's the sort of thing you sound out early, not at the last minute, to make sure you don't miss a trick.)
Not to mention that that low population is only when you look at aggregate population and land mass. A large chunk of that population is along the eastern seaboard, which is a much easier area to handle in that respect.
All of this, though, is exacerbated by the appallingly bad communication. (I've lost count of how many times I've harped on this point.) There's a lot that customers can, and will, forgive - as long as they're kept informed. As a friend said, "I'm actually willing to put up with quite a lot of delay and re-scheduling as long as I'm told about it early, instead of when I call or show up looking for it/them." It's also a lot easier for customers to work around delays with advance warning.
There comes a point during the process when it becomes obvious that the date is going to slip. The more it's going to slip, the sooner that point arrives. (Slip by a day? You might not realise until the prior day. Slip by a week? It's most likely going to be obvious a week or two ahead. Slip by a month? I'd expect that to be apparent no less than a month or two beforehand.) If you simply acknowledge the slippage to the customer and give them an updated ETA as soon as it's apparent, it's a lot easier to handle it than if you say the day before, "Oh. We can't do that date. How about <some date six months away> instead?" (I exaggerate, but only to illustrate the point.)
Right now, based upon whispers I've heard, I'm guessing my LR AWD will be in my hands by the end of October, rather than the original September date indicated to me at order time. If they'd told me that in late August - and I would have expected them to have a reasonable knowledge of that slippage by then - I could have planned accordingly. But I still do not have anything official beyond that "September" date. That lack of communication is going to cause Tesla a fair amount of damage in the long run, because there's plenty of people who would have been evangelists for the product that will now be saying instead, "Weeeeeeeeell.... it's a nice car, but ..."