In Melbourne, this is totally normal. Everyone stands in the street, prospective buyers, neighbours, and people starting their house search. The estate agent stands on the front step, acting as the auctioneer, using the rolled up "Section 32" document like a gavel.

Typically the auctioneer draws out bids in $10-20k increments, then knocks it down with a "going once, going twice, going three times..." call.

Just before declaring it sold, the agent normally stops, goes inside to consult with the vendor, and if the price is above their reserve price, goes back outside and says "the house is now on the market".

Now the auction gets serious...

Usually another couple of bidders reveal themselves at this stage. The increments can drop to $1k. If there is a battle between the last two or three bidders, the final price can go up another $50-100k or so. Eventually the final bid is locked in with a final call of "going once, going twice, going three times, to the man in the blue shirt."

The winning bidder goes inside with the estate agent, hands over a cheque for 10% of the purchase price, signs the contract part of the Section 32 statement, and is then committed to pay the balance in 60 or 90 days. Sales almost never fall through. If the buyer cannot get financing etc, the seller keeps their 10% deposit. The seller cannot back out.

I bought my house like this, and sold it again 20 years later the same way.

It's a totally predictable, well regulated, very transparent process. The weekend auction results are all published on Monday morning, both for every house, and the aggregate "clearance rates" for sold versus "passed in".

This is so unlike UK, where each sale has a chain of buyers, all "subject to finance", and no certainty or speed!