If you're looking to go freelancing but aren't yet ready for the jump, perhaps try asking your employer if you can go part time so you can slowly build up your client base, rather than suddenly hitting $0 income from day one.

I'm in melbourne and the market seems pretty healthy, however you need to be fairly specialised. Anything generic (web sites, online stores etc) is totally saturated, so it's a race to the bottom on hourly rates with Upwork if you cannot differentiate. I agree with the comments below - get specialised in something and then leverage those vendors to build your customer base.

As an aside - I'm on the other side of the equation compared with many of the replies below. I'm a sales & marketing person first up, and a developer by necessity secondly (PHP & RoR). I have a micro-business on the side which is gaining more traction than I would like, and think I will need some folk to help with delivery in the next 2-3 months.

So, if you have some PHP experience and know how to hit APIs with JSON and XML then perhaps shoot me an email we can keep in touch, as I might be able to find you a day a week in a couple of months time if you do totally go "cold turkey" and resign.