Wow, I just realized how little the thing actually looks like a ring. Hopefully it gets filled in/pulled up in the rehab. Everyone cries about bad maintenance, what this actually is, but when someone makes up a story about it, God forbid they fix the problem.
It may have been a stretch, but it was still a beloved piece of Mansion lore for thousands of people. Disney knew that. It's not like a kid looked at the ring, asked "Daddy, what's that?" and his father said "Oh, it's a ring." and that's as far as it got. This was one of those small little bits of Disney trivia, like the Presidents in Spaceship Earth, or the page to Tom Morrow in the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Yes, it wasn't planned by the Imagineers, but it was still a legend nonetheless, and it was perpetuated by many a CM. It's not just because a story was made up, but because of how close that story has come to many of our hearts, and how widespread it was. And we know that Disney has to know this. If they didn't, why did Disney auction off a ring?
As for the Australian pavillion, I'd thought of adding countries to the World Showcase, and drew a few pavillions as they would fit into the current Showcase. One of them was Australia, which, along with Russia, Greece, and Egypt, I was shocked didn't have representation.
On the water, on one side of the promenade there would be an urban area, with a smaller version of the Sydney Opera House (like the old models show). The other side would be the wilderness, surrounded by red rock with Ayers Rock popping up in the background. There would be a gator farm which would contain a show, a rustic steakhouse built into the side of the rock, and an Aborigine village. It could work well.