I'm also in Brisbane (moved back from canberra) and it does seem more service orientated, hence consulting/corporate/mining, however it's the same anywhere. Most great jobs aren't advertised and you get them through doing great work and building a network of people who can get you that awesome job hence are biased toward proof in the form of experience and social connections/proof. I've done the corporate drill but I figure as long as you've got a goal|outcome, an exit plan and timeframe it can be worth it.

Small firms/startups for bizdev are likely to target experienced people recruited from networks even more than bigCo IMHO.