Sleepy Australians, alas, neglected half the solution for sacred riddles (5)

'sleepy australians alas neglected' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'half the solution for sacred riddles' is the wordplay.
'half the' indicates taking half.
'solution' becomes 'answer' (synonyms).
'for' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'sacred riddles' becomes 'ko' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'answer' with half the letters taken is 'ans'.
'ans' put after 'ko' is 'KOANS'.

Can you help me to learn more?