Gday MoRat,
My first time here as well. As an Aussie hunter like you I feel you are spot on with the .243. Cant go wrong. Top calibre for all varmints and small to medium game in the country. No problems with long shots, pigs, goats and fallow deer. Its powerful, flat shotting and easy to handle. Bullets are reasonably priced and easy to get. I reccommend the ..243 to many of my mates in similar situations. The 7mm ranges discussed by others in this blog are in the .270 range. If you were looking for something in that area you wouldnt go past a .270 for Australia. Ive got a Tikka Stainless Lite in .243 and its a beauty. Just over a thousand aussie dollars and guaranteed to shoot sub MOA. No problems with that either as I get about 3/4 MOA using 87 grain Hornady V-max bullets. Its also just shy of 6 pounds.

Cheers