I read both several years ago - First was an Australian miner wound up taking care of two kids, one was crippled who later died. There was a policewoman involved somehow.
The second was BDSM and there was a bet involved on how long it would take for the man and woman to get together?
The following authors are Australian or have Australian elements in their stories. Have a scan through their story lists.
https://storiesonline.net/a/ernest-bywater
https://storiesonline.net/a/Oz_Ozzie
https://storiesonline.net/a/William_Turney_Morris
https://storiesonline.net/a/barbar
https://storiesonline.net/a/Peter_H_Salus
I am familiar with the stories written by Oz_Ozzie, barbar and Peter_H_Salus. Really don't think it's one of them.
I can't remember any details, but I do remember something about a story from the very early days of Sol, about 20 years ago, set in Melbourne where a fellow ends up caring for some children who aren't his due to saving someone at a tram or train station, and later a policewoman becomes involved with the group.
Quite a bit of that matches https://storiesonline.net/s/55125/australian-story by https://storiesonline.net/a/Oz_Ozzie but that is not the story the op is looking for. The story is only 12 years old though.
I seem to remember multiple authors with thom or tom in their pen names who seemed to be Aussies.
mthommotoo admits to being Aussie in his profile, not sure about the others.
Also, perhaps search for usage of Aussie vernacular (eg tinny) or wildlife terms (eucalyptus, kangaroo).
AJ
I recall a science fiction story involving a gold prospector. Guy ends up taking care of an orphan with aboriginal roots, runs afoul of protective services. The gold was a byproduct of aliens mining something else... can't remember the title, but maybe that helps the search if that sounds right?
