Google-branded cars with roof-mounted cameras have just begun traversing our streets, taking highly detailed panoramic street-level photos for a new Maps feature called Street View. — SMH (2007-Nov-23)
And so it was to be, at 16:00 hours 28-Dec-2007 we spotted the Google Car on Victoria Parade in Melbourne
Mounted on the roof on top of the pole and in the red casing is the camera, the GPS is mounted below and to the rear. The driver has a LCD monitor mounted in the passenger seat; and quite a bit of junk in the back seats 
Cameras mounted on top of “Google labelled” cars, will travel around Australian cities and towns, pausing to take a 360 degree photo, record the location of the image using a GPS, and then move to the next location.
The images will be collected throughout summer and are likely to appear online in the second half of next year. — Cnet (2007-Nov-26)
[Also see Google Street View avaliable for .au (2008-Aug-05)]
(…) Google’s global vice president, Marissa Mayer, told the Herald that the company hoped to launch Street View in Australia this year, but when it came to protecting people’s privacy Google was at the mercy of the “flaws of the real world and human error”. (…)
(…) Street View is available for more than 40 US cities and Google’s picture-snapping cars have been traversing Australian capitals since late last year. (…)
Privacy fears as Google hits the road (2008-Apr-10) [The AGE]