eddiec wrote:

thanks everyone for the info!

I'm having a hard time getting a lawn going on the desert in my backyard
(Melbourne). If oats are out is there any other grass-like plant (rye,
barley?) that will form a tough lawn more easily than grass?

Do you mean that kikuyu wont grow there?

Just mulch it and leave it.
Seriously I have areas of 3m squared and about 7m squared where the
grass had been totally removed and all I did was to dump leaf
dropping/mulch there from elsewhere.

The grass will eventually grow back into it as the nutrients become
available.