Agreed with your thoughts regarding the FAA system and it's ease.
I might have to defer the detail of knowledge requirements to a current examiner...
Btw, all government institutions love w*nk words....
Try having a look in the elements of competency in the MoS:
Part 61 Manual of Standards Instrument 2014
And on the forms themselves
Civil Aviation Safety Authority - Forms
Sounds like you are looking for an initial?
The tough bit is an initial rating must (or at least used to) be assessed by a Casa examiner, if it is a bigger type, it is mandated to be done in a sim. These rules are pretty consistent with my FAA experience. The problem in Oz is there ain't many sims Downunder, and even less CASA examiners aboard. Unless it's a 737ng or a320 type (the only sim types supported by publicly available suitable sims in Oz that I know of) you already have, it was pretty much impossible.
I don't know if CASA is accepting foreign 'initials' now, but checks are fine.