In a row and 2-3 ft. tall the first year sounds like root suckers.

Many - not all - apples are grafted and rootstock suckers seldom produce a tree whose fruit is tasty or even palatable. Personally, I would remove them and plant a known tree (actually two for proper cross pollination) that will produce fruit you can harvest and enjoy.

Even though Gala is considered a fairly low chill variety, your warm-ish winters may be affecting it. I have a Gala and Honeycrisp. The Gala tends to push buds mid-Spring, but it does so unevenly and also blooms unevenly. My HC acts like your Gala, this summer it didn't break a bud until July! For the first time in three years, it finally bloomed although nothing took. Growth on this has been very slow too. Growth on the Gala has been uneven. This year we had a very warm winter and I haven't seen much growth. The previous winter was much colder and I got a lot more growth last summer. Could be related, might not be. I get a lot of suckers out of both which are also on M111. My third tree, a Pixie Crunch is not on M111 and is growing like crazy, but that apparently is a trait of this cultivar.

Prices in Australia seem high for a 250mm seedling. I followed your link and then a link to Bunnings Warehouse. 250 mm is 10 inches. That's a first year whip. The seedlings I grafted last year were that long when they came off the grafting table ( read my kitchen table), I checked some other apple prices the Redlove was only a few more dollars than common apples like Red Delicious or Granny Smith. But crab apples are expensive as much as 4 times the price of the Redlove. I could almost consider selling apples on eBay and ship to Australia with free shipping. But I don't know where to get a Redlove scion. Not to mention shipping restrictions. I grafted a Redfield apple myself last spring. It's a cross between a Niedzwetzkyana apple and a big Wolf River apple. The red flesh is from the Niedzwetzkyana. I tell you this because the Niedzwetzkyana has the red flesh, its leafs tend to red, the Cambrium is red and it has huge 4 inch (100mm) red blossoms. The 50mm apples aren't that great for eating but make a great sauce, pies or cider. And there's always those (few) who find the taste as the best apple they've ever had. But with those blossoms it's worth growing as an ornamental. If you can't find a graft on your plant ( I'd pull back the soil and look a little deeper) then you might gamble on it recovering.