Don't be afraid to ask anything, if it's not something I can (or want to) do, I'll just say so. Go and chat to one of your clients? I dunno. Maybe you do.
I'm over the ditch in Auckland currently but I spent a year living in South Yarra and even met my wife there.
Start at http://thehive.org.au/category/melbourne/ (entrepreneurs) then try http://groups.google.com/group/connected-community-hackerspa... (hacker spaces, software/hardware) then try (late night hacking) at http://twitter.com/melnightowls or day time hacking at http://www.inspire9.com.au/ then maybe a weekly morning meeting of (nerds/hackers/media) at SocialMelbourne http://twitter.com/socialmelb Thats just off the top of my head. Also try looking through my melbourne twit list ~ http://twitter.com/#/list/bootload/melbourne There is a cross pollination of hackers/devs/design activity at http://trampolineday.com/
"... How does it compate to what you know of the US / SV and somewhere smaller like NZ. ..."
SV is the startup hub either side of the Tasman. I haven't been to NZ before, but the business culture (stale, crusty & risk adverse) would be similar. Like NZ lots of smart people, starved of YC type Angel investment advice. One difference I'm noticing is the quality and frequency of startups with direct US/YC/SV experience is increasing. Melbourne is pretty busy :)