Just to put some perspective into the interest being shown about salaries down under. We have a peculiar (to Oz & NZ, IIRC) system of Award Wages, which are Federal agreements between unions and companies to establish a pay scale for all workers within a particular employment category.
The Pilot's Award is currently up before the Industrial Relations Tribunal for re negotiation, but it is currently running as more an indication of minimum salaries, since demand for experienced pilots outweighs supply. Most experienced pilots can get well above award, hence the c$A100k, if they have the qualifications needed for SAR, medevac or offshore. Federal laws have changed over the past years, allowing "enterprise bargaining", which was designed to get unions out of the picture, and allow employees to negotiate directly with employers for pay and conditions. Generally, the award is now considered only for minimum rates, and companies vie with better pay to get better qualified pilots.
Cost and standard of living here is still exceptional, and a rough measure is what costs a quid in UK, costs a dollar here.
Award details can be found at
http://www.wagenet.gov.au/index.html , although the site wasn't fully working this morning when I tried.
Little later, the .pdf download still won't connect, but you can read the Helicopter Pilot's Award which is H0036, look under the alphabetical list.
http://www.wagenet.gov.au/images/index.html
There is also an offshore award, haven't got time to look for it at the moment. Someone else can find it and post the link!
[This message has been edited by John Eacott (edited 20 March 2001).]