Uluru (or Ayers Rock) is located in approximately the exact center of the continent of Australia. As such, the sandstorm formation is considered very important by the Aboriginals, not only as a landmark, but one of their most sacred sites. As such, they've pushed to keep people from climbing Uluru and desecrating it. In 2019, a ban was finally placed to prevent people from climbing Ayers Rock, though many people were unhappy with it. This hit the closest town of Yulara pretty hard as they were dependent on tourism. It was hit even worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, they're more than welcoming of their Animalian neighbors in the Uluru colony.
The center of Australia isn't strictly desert by some definitions. It is a very arid area, but there are still some very hardy plants who cover a decent amount of the area. There are far more barren deserts in other parts of Australia. Even so, it's very dry and hot for most of the year. Miles was particularly grateful for having chosen to become a black-tailed jackrabbit, also known as the American desert hare. His long ears were designed for radiating out excess heat and he found the climate less oppressive than most. Which is rather important for his stay in the Animalian colony here.
The Uluru colony was just as much a place for desert Animalians as it is an experimental community. Not a sociological experiment as some may assume, or at least not the way they assume. The houses built for the colony were designed to be as self-sufficient as possible, which includes solar panels on all the roofs, windmills to provide additional power and cooling, and desalination systems to recycle water as efficiently as possible. It was looking at a piece of the future, hopefully a future without heavily-modified trucks and highway bandits.
And not all of the development is above ground. Among the local wildlife that has been uplifted are marsupial moles who have helped dug large burrows. It wasn't quite the same as the Burrows in Lyre, but building underground is an effective way of getting away from the heat. There was some talk of mining, either mining near the colony or buying some abandoned mines to refurbish into settlements, but Miles was still trying to catch up with that.
Meanwhile, Miles was helping Khan and Marla adjust to their new life and new surroundings. And there was a familiar face to help out with that. Though Miles hadn't met Larry personally, he had seen the frilled dragon on Animalia Ambassadoria. Larry might live in Northland, but he was reptilian enough to not mind the desert so much that he couldn't come down to Uluru.
But the biggest problem with living in a town that was almost literally in the middle of nowhere was that wasn't much to do, especially as Ayers Rock is off-limits to climbers. However, the Ayers Rock Resort has begun putting a light and drone show at night to tell ancient Aboriginal stories. The desert half of the Australian colony might seem a bit dry, but Miles was sure that the coastal half will make up for it.