It took me about 75 applications over 5 months to secure my first Oz posting, that was 9 years ago and the market was much more buoyant than now. The ‘Oz experience’ issue is a genuine problem, some employers are very wary of dealing with migrants with no Oz work background. I brought a ruck of certificates, work documents, recommendations and the like, and they were pretty much universally dismissed at interviews. One thing that struck me is that references in the UK are too generic, too HR-centric. Whereas over here, they seem to encompass what you are actually like at doing your job; and if you’re rubbish, they will say that. So, a lot of employers are looking for that level of detail.
Just persevere is all I can say really. The only real advice I would offer up is make sure you have enough money to live on whilst you are applying (which could be 6 months +), don’t bother with Perth as there is no real market here, don’t fall out with anyone as it will come back to bite you, interact socially at work as that’s how most internal opportunities are leveraged, join an official body of knowledge for the industry that you’re working in, etc…..
Good luck all.