CSIRO is a government-funded research body - not having factories to produce what it researches doesn't make it a patent troll.
they didn't invent wifi, they invented modern wifi
from the horse's mouth, the lawyer representing the company in the relevant case: "CSIRO did not invent the concept of wireless LAN, it just invented the best way of doing it, the best way it's used now throughout the world,"
In addition, it does seem they had a strong desire to make use of their patent, approaching potential partners, and creating spun-off companies, centered around making use of the technology
CSIRO patented its use in WLAN setups (including WiFi).
It's controversial because they're only major first was to implement WLAN setups using OFDM with forward ECC. In any case they were merely taking something already used in cellular phone networks and applying to another kind of broadcast setup.
> The premier world engineering institution, the IEEE, created a working group for the evolving 802.11 wireless standard in 1990, a full three years before CSIRO filed for its key wireless patent. The group voted repeatedly on which way to go forward and produced heaps of records, but CSIRO didn't even participate in the 802.11 committee. The group published the first 802.11 standard in 1997 and CSIRO came forward years after the fact.
The working group was created in 1990, the patent was filed in 1993 and the 802.11 standard first published in 1997.
Long story short: CSIRO did participate in the process through a third party (the first company they licensed their tech to). They also agree to the IEEE's request that they would licence the IP on 'fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms' (note: not free). When they approached vendors and made an initial offer of $4 a pop, vendors refused to pay and ended up in court. Honestly I think wifi vendors simply misjudged the probability of CSIRO taking them to court if they didn't cough up.