It is worth noting though that Austria didn't spend all that time at home re-arranging stuff but promoted and financed many valuable scientific expeditions all around the globe which eventually benefitted every colonial power.

Like the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition (or Payer-Weyprecht Expedition, after its two commanders) from 1872 to 1874 in an attempt to discover the north-east passage. Although not successful at that since the Tegetthoff got stuck in ice early in their journey they did discover and explore a new island group they called Franz-Joseph Land (today Russian territory of still the same name).

Or the Novara-Expedition of 1857–59, which took 7 scientists on the SMS Novara westwards around the globe and delivered great amounts of new specimen back to Europe, including the first coca bushes which allowed the first extraction of pure cocaine, and crucial new data in the fields of oceanography, hydrography and geomagnetism as well as geography for some islands visited.

And indeed several Austrian Africa expeditions, such as the 1886-89 East Africa one by Sámuel Teleki, the Congo Expedition of 1885–87 under Oskar Lenz or the Massai-Expedition of 1892-93 by Oscar Baumann, which made him the first European to reach the source of the Nile (although only identified as such in 1937 by the German Burkhart Waldecker).

There was one several small attempt of gaining a foothold in East Africa at least. Ferdinand Maximilian (the later Maximilian I. of Mexico), younger brother of the Austrian Emperor, saw the Suez canal (built 1859-67) as a new route that could, once done, potentially revolutionise the whole Africa and Asia trade. At his behest in 1855 von Tegetthoff (later the most famous admiral in Austrian history) scouted the coast of the Red Sea for possible Austrian bases and indeed agreed on a price with the local ruler to purchase the island of Socotra near the Horn of Africa and additionally suggested the harbour city of Massawa in today's Eritrea. But then in 1857 the Second Italian War of Independence happened, which drained ressources too much to make the purchases and eventually lead to Austria abandoning the project altogether. A few years later the British leased Socotra and made it into a naval base and in 1885 Italy occupied Massawa and founded the Colonia Eritrea.

That was pretty much the last attempt of establishing Austrian lands in Africa since the only member of the family interested in such an endeavour was made King of Mexico in 1864 and killed in the Mexican Revolution in 1867. Archduke Karl Ludwig wasn't interested in politics or military and kept to his art and Archduke Ludwig Viktor was generally known as the weird one, not to mention several scandals involving his not-exactly-secret homosexuality and rumors about him wearing dresses.

Trade on the other hand was an interest to the Empire and the Austrian Maria-Theresientaler was a valued currency all over the continent since its reeded edges prevented shaving (clipping off the edges of coins to make new ones) and thus had a constant value, something the Spanish dubloon for example lacked for a long time.

Sources:
Sommerauer, Erich: Die Afrikanistik in Österreich 1824-1992 (2010)
Basch-Ritter, Renate: Die Weltumsegelung der Novara 1857-1859. Österreich auf allen Meeren (2008)
von Payer, Julius: Die österreichisch-ungarische Nordpol-Expedition in den Jahren 1872–1874 (1876)

I'm sure someone has something to add, but there's an old thread about this you might want to check

I suggest that Austria-Hungary was an empire that had to manage competing and conquered peoples (Croats, Bosnians, Ruthenians, Czechs, Slovaks, Rom (Gypsies), Rumanians and so forth - there was precious little EXTRA energy to go subjugate Africans - they were too busy trying to keep their European empire in line.