Just wanted to chime in here, as I seem to be in a similar situation. I already have a permanent resident visa and plan to come to Australia beginning of next year, when my current contract runs out. I do Java and Enterprise Integration so I'll be looking at the banks for a project. Maybe I'll also look at startups, wouldn't mind working in a more dynamic environment for a while.
The market here in Germany is fairly strong though, so leaving a good market for uncertainty is a bit of a leap. But I guess as a contractor you should be used to a bit of risk and uncertainty. What I'd love to here is from the people that already made the transfer to Australia, as an IT contractor. How hard it was to find that first project and major differences between the markets, if any.