Andy, a groaaan for you! In my case, these days, its "wattle he be making next!". In actual fact, I'm going to be running a weekend workshop in a country district 4 hours away, teaching Camembert and Farmhouse Cheddar to 6-8 people. I'll be sure to post photos.
Joy, names of plants, rather like the names of cheeses, are often loosely applied (eg, an American Cheddar is nowhere near the original English thing).
In the case of wattles, which is a common name for Australian acacias (a botanical name), they belong to the same family (Mimosaceae) as African acacias and American mimosas (botanical name for the genus which includes Mimosa pudica). Things are confused by the fact that when Australian acacias were introduced to Europe, the floral structure reminded people of Mimosa (botanical name), so they referred to the plants as mimosas(as a common name).
Bottom line is that all these plants ARE related, and share the characteristic 'fluffy' flower structure. But they are NOT related to the American tree called White Acacia (or Black Locust)...
Many of the wattles have edible seeds too (some are roasted as a coffee substitute) so my next thing will have to be to see if I can work them into a cheese or two...an Australian Shankleesh perhaps