Nearly all nations tanked similarly, but only when priced in US dollars. It was caused by a record USD bull run. The USD gained a lot of ground vs the AUD in just two years.

Germany went from $3.88t to $3.36t one year later.

France went from $2.85t to $2.43t one year later.

Canada went from $1.84t to $1.55t in two years.

Japan went from $6.2t in 2012, to $4.4t in 2015. I assure you, their economy didn't actually contract by 29% in three years. That's solely due to the dollar / yen exchange. They didn't shutter a third of their stores or factories. A year later their USD GDP value jumped by ~11%, solely due to the exchange rate, their economic production did not expand by 11%.

The US dollar dropping by a considerable amount during the Bush years, was similarly responsible for artificially inflating the GDP of Australia (and all nations) in USD terms.