Thank you for your response Ferret.
I didn't necessarily expect them to sort through 2000 resumes, I just thought they may have some means of weeding out some applicants at this initial stage. It doesn't seem like they have much information in order to do that.
I was also concerned that I may have missed something after talking to past successful applicants about their more thorough initial application, and then reading this in the most recent blog post on firerecruitmentaustralia.com.au:
2016-2017 SAMFS Recruitment
"It starts off with the online application just like any other fire service. At this stage, make sure to have your resume, IDs and documents ready when you sit and process your application online."
It appears they are doing things a little differently this year.