Elwood,
For what its worth my advice is to stay in, get paid a decent salary and fly as much as you can off your own bat. By earning more you will be able to afford more. Get yourself more multi time early, get a jet rating as soon as possible then apply to the locos in Aus and overseas.
Perhaps the best advice I can give you is to speak to your instructors. While they may have been hard on you during training you will probably find that they will go out of their way to help you succeed in a new path. They probably have good contacts around the country in various flying fields as well.
On a tangent and following on from some of the comments directed at mil flying training. I am constantly amused by those that have not been through the military system and yet feel qualified to comment on its suitability. I believe that the only people that can give an honest comparison of military and civvy flying are those that have experience of both.
I am ex military, now flying civvy. I am extremely grateful that the training I had (RAF) was tough. I am thankful that I was put through the ringer, and that my colleagues were as well. I am thankful that some of my fellow students of the time were chopped. Why so happy about this? Because I have been to war, I have been shot at, and I have had to have the ability and the confidence not only in myself but also in the guy flying with me to not just stay alive, but to get the job done.
Someone made a comment earlier mocking a statement by a military flyer about not accepting more than one mistake. Well I agree with that military flyer. Im not perfect, nowhere near. But in certain flying situations there simply isnt room for making mistakes. If you do make one, and it doesnt turn out to be your last, then you better fix it very quickly and not make it again.
Does talking like this make me sound arrogant? Cocky? Maybe. But I am still flying having been through situations that civvies just wont ever be exposed to. So again I say thanks to my instructors and a system that pushed and tested me to such high standards.
Blah