Hi and welcome,
It's late at night so I'll get in and give you some info before everyone wakes up and gets on your back about not searching prior posts.
For starters, no matter which which route you take in aviation there will be someone ready to relieve you of your hard earned dollars, cadetships are certainly no exception.
As the previous poster mentioned, the Jetstar cadetship is $100k+, their website has been "undergoing an upgrade" for some time now so that figure is from memory when I was a student. A few guys I know got into the Cathay cadetship so I was under the impression it was open to Australian citizens. Perhaps this has changed as their website states you must have the right to live in Hong Kong. There are some cadetships that offer a reduced training period for candidates who already hold a CPL and/or MECIR, Qantaslink is one that comes to mind.
If you simply cannot afford to pay for lessons there are a number of schools/universities around the country who offer flight training with the cost offset under the governments fee-help program. Edith Cowan University, Swinburne, Oxford and FTA come to mind however be prepared for a ~$90k debt to the Australian tax payer once you are finished.
Unless you absolutely must sit in a jet and if your finances can stretch, I'd pay for flight training as you go and take the GA route to wherever you want to end up. I contemplated applying for cadetships a few years ago and also thought about completing my training on fee-help but I'm certainly glad I didn't! It took me a few extra years to get my CPL but I can sleep at night wondering whether I will eat 2min noodles or toast tomorrow without a $90k debt hanging over me. You may, like me, find out that GA is a great place. Sure, girls aren't as impressed when they ask what type of plane I fly and find out it isn't an A380 but it seems nearly every airline pilot I've spoken too has told me that their time in GA was the most fun they've had in their careers. I love every minute of my flying and am looking forward to a hopefully long and rewarding career without ever working for an airline.
