As to house prices/areas Emma, good news is that prices are dropping of late given higher interest rates biting.
You could check out sites like www.domain.com.au or Real Estate, Property, Land and Homes for Sale, lease and rent - realestate.com.au to get an idea around the nation.

Recent History would have a city/region pricing structure going top down of something like:
Sydney, Melbourne Perth and Darwin, Coastal properties in regional cities, Brisbane, Adelaide Hobart and regional cities.

In looking for what you describe, I'll take quite a bit of land to mean a small/medium acreage and my tips would be places like the Adelaide Hills, Mornington Peninsula or Yarra Valley and surrounding regions of Melbourne, Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast hinterlands and if not minding it cooler, somewhere about either Launceston or Hobart in Tasmania.

Wherever you might eventually decide on, just remember that the further you live from work, the less likely of having public transport and that availibility/pricing of fuel is not going to ever get any better.