Australia, anyone?

[That Guy]

So I'm thinking of moving to Australia sometime in the next year or so. I've been poking around and looking at possibly Sydney, though I'm nowhere near stone-carving phase of the plan yet.
I've also looked at the job market, and what I might have to go through to apply for a work-visa. All the applications and whatnot are fairly expensive (US$707 just for the migration application!!). I'm also looking at what it would cost to get my cat and my girlfriend's dog over, which seems to be a little pricy for just a quarantine from a fairly clean country.
Aside from what I've already said, is there any relevant info anyone could lay on me? Even info on the stuff I've mentioned would help infinitely. I tried to email jaguar from here, but I haven't received a response, which leads me to believe he's a CS student that doesn't check his email (yea, sure), or he doesn't care to see his country get over-run with another joker from Texas.
Thanks for any help!