Any of those calibres are ample for almost any game in Aus. As others have pointed out the .308 is a proven good all-rounder. Pre Port Arthur, I had a H &K 940 30-06 auto. It was an absolute "beast" of a firearm. Interestingly, I used to buy "practice" ammo at the local Aussie disposals store. Machine gun belt 30-06 ball. From memory, it was about $80 for about 200 rounds. It was generally date stamped 1942 to 1944. How times have changed.
From the OP: My two mates have a dirty thirty and a .308 and one of them does reloading. Makes sense given we can use the same .30 die. My head says .308 but i want something a bit different I think which is why i'm leaning to 30-06 or 300WIN.
Any chance of range use? Some ranges wont allow magnum cartridges so 300WM may be an issue. .308 is said to be a little more accurate than 30-06. Really the answer to this is buy what you want. You obviously know what a good choice is for your use but you also obviously want something bigger so if you can afford to feed it then go ahead, it's your money so buy something you want and be happy.
The 30-06 is great, but seriously - the flexibility and cost of a 308 in oz just makes it a no-brainer. Good, cheap, accurate, more than adequate stopping power. Depends how much shooting you're going to do I suppose, but if I was looking at doing a fair bit I'd go a 308 without question.
Not to mention the .308 is SA and 30-06 is LA, if we are getting picky, technically you can work a 308 action faster than a 30-09
Yeah - the weight difference is pretty noticeable on the older rifles as well. If you're humping cross country you'll start to notice! I find a 308 much less 'tiring' as a rifle (though I've not done a lot of vermin shooting with a 30-06 to be honest) . A bit quieter, lighter, less recoil. Really what you want when going after roos/rabbits. All my shooting was in WA so pigs / boars is less of an issue than it is up in QLD? If I was worried about boars I'd probably take something a bit bigger? Don't know, I loved my 308.
308 is pretty much perfect for pigs, if they don't get down after a half decent placed shot from one then I'd be running the other way Admittedly most of my 308 shots are using 130gn Speer projectiles which are pretty much dynamite on everything except the occasional dry mud soaked boar. A good 180gn SP is pretty much game over.
