Hi there, I'm not an Aussie but I am currently living there. You may get a better response if you post in the Living Overseas section on mumsnet. You
could also try the PomsinOz forum or BritishExpats.
As far as I am aware, there is limited support and finance. FaHCSIA offers funding for children with autism but it seems to stop when the child is 7 years old. I suspect this is because of a huge emphasis on early diagnosis/intervention.
I may be wrong, but I also suspect you won't access this funding if you are a Temporary Resident. Are you planning to move permanently? Temporary Residency is definitely second class for many reasons e.g. Medicare only covers emergency treatment.
Other people may come by and say different, but I have not had a great experience with our local public (state) school. I get the feeling that they can't deal with anyone outside the 'norm'. There are certainly far fewer teaching assistants (aides) and there is far less acknowledgement of different learning styles, let alone other aspects of teaching a child on the autistic spectrum. There's loads of emphasis on tests and comparing children to other children their age, rather than just encouraging them to do their best. It all feels very old fashioned to me.
In ds2's class last year, there was a girl with a learning disability although I don't know her exact diagnosis or condition. Her mum has recently moved her to a private school attached to one of the universities. Apparently, at the public school, her mum was paying for a part-time aide, but the girl still wasn't progressing very much. She said that in one term of going to the new school, her daughter had improved hugely in her reading and was far happier.
I don't know the details of their situation but it certainly didn't appear that the public school had any funding to help her dd - the mum was paying for it all under her own initiative.
I have long wondered if my ds1 had mild Aspergers but as he was coping well (in England) and ds2 demanded more of our energy, I didn't pursue any diagnosis. Anyway, ds1 didn't deal well with our move, found it hard to make friends in his new school over here, and was bullied, and I am now homeschooling him. He was happy at school in England. At the time, I didn't think his old school was anything special, but compared to the public school over here it was wonderful.
I also know many parents who have withdrawn their children from public school as they weren't receiving any support for their dyslexia. There seems to be a lot of chastising children for not 'getting' things like which way round b or d should go, or reversing their 3s or 5s. The answer (according to the schools) seems to be that the children just need to practise more, rather than the teachers changing the way they teach.
One of the reasons you may have seen a lot of information is that provision varies from state to state, and there are different autism charities in each state or territory too. Maybe things are better in other states? We are in Sydney, NSW, and I have a friend who is a SALT who grumbles a lot about the state education department and their lack of vision. The NSW disability program is outlined here although this recent news report is far from reassuring.
I'm afraid I don't know much about the situation in other states. I'm sorry if this all sounds quite negative, but really, I've been terribly unimpressed by the education system over here. I remember reading that a large proportion of Sydney children went to private school and I thought the parents must all just be snobs and I couldn't see why they did that. I reckoned that public school would be fine for my kids. Now I am seriously considering private school for all of them - if I don't just carry on homeschooling.
I suggest you find as much information as you can about where exactly you want to move, what the provision is like in that state and what the public or private schools are like in the exact area you want to move to. It may have changed a lot since 2007.