I’ve posted a search plugin to MozDev for Google Maps Australia.  You can install it into FireFox or IE7 by clicking on the ‘Google Maps AU - Hybrid’.  If there are two showing up on that page, use the second one, it’s the latest version.

Because this is the .au version of the maps search, you can put in the town and state (or even just the town in most cases).

Other cool things:

• Search for a business directly: cafe penrith will show cafes in Penrith NSW.
• Lookup driving directions: Russell street Emu Plains to Appin
• Drive on water: The directory includes the Bass Strait Ferry, so I can find the way to drive from Melbourne to Hobart, but not from Sydney to Auckland.
• The street directions work in New Zealand, but not the business search.  I imagine that this is coming soon, so you can drive from the south to the north island.
• Just in case you get lost driving across Kangaroo Island
• The classics: all the way from Perth to Sydney or Darwin to Melbourne.

So much to see!  It’s a big country, go find somewhere new to go this weekend.  If you end up going on a trip, why not post the directions here and let us know where you went.