I'm graduating this year from unsw so i hope this lends some credence to my observations.
assuming you're confident of getting into a med sch in straya, it is important to look beyond your immediate future as a student.
firstly, regarding the internship issue, the situation aint peachy but its not as dire as some of the other threads here make it out to be. in the last two years, all of the internationals i know who wanted to stay on in australia have managed to get a position. however, the offers tend to come really late, anywhere between october and december. offers from singapore's MOH come in before that, so are you willing to turn that down and hold out (with no guarantees) for an australian offer? but then you'll only graduate in 6-7 years time, and a lot may have changed by then. the overall student numbers are said to plateau this year so it may be that you'll have no problems getting a job.
international students tend to get positions in the regional hospitals, which may be far from the major cities. having grown up in a city state, are you able to adapt to country life? it may be worthwhile doing a rural term during your clinical years to experience what you're getting yourself into.
starting your career away from the major tertiary hospitals (in the big cities) will negatively affect your postgrad training to a certain extent. training positions in all specialities are fiercely competitive as it is. the intern crisis will only spill over to become a registrar crisis.
to put things into perspective:
the earliest one can realistically expect to get into surgical training is pgy5 after all the srmo terms.
last year, there were 50 radiology and 25 ophthalmology training positions.
even GP training was oversubscribed with 2000 applicants for 1600 positions.
all up the unis graduated >3500 new drs
of course, individual circumstances will vary, i know of an international who got an internship in sydney CBD. and if you do the right terms, get to know the right people, and do enough research, you may very well be a consultant in the big city before 35. but conversely, the worst case scenario may be that you're stuck on a farm in the middle of nowhere as a GP registrar or still trying for whatever college.
as a junior dr or even a registrar, its not uncommon to have to move around the state or country as you take up different postings. you'll be in your late 20s to early 30s and may be thinking about starting a family, how will this affect your partner and children?
what makes you so set on practising in australia? its good that you're browsing these forums and asking these questions so that you can have a realistic expectation of what you're getting yourself into.
