h4773r

A job he had years of experience in and them needing someone right away. It didn't hurt that Americans put Scandinavians on a not well deserved pedestal. Australians are definitely on a pedestal of their own, though.
How long it takes you will depend a lot on how picky you are and how the job market is where you are moving.

nothing wrong with getting married as you suggest and going the CR1 route, it's not fraud, loads of people go to the US and get married, to be legal you will need to leave and then file CR1. K1 time varies, mine took about 10 months from filing to arrival.
In many way I wish I had got married in Uk then filed CR1 as I would have had GC more or less straightaway, thats the main advantage of CR 1 as I see it. SS number is a week or 2, no big issue there.

For CR-1 side of things you enter the US and upon entry CBP will stamp your passport, thereby giving you a temporary green card essentially, but you would still need to obtain a social security card which would take a couple of weeks once you go and apply for it.
On your first day of work at any company in the US, regardless of CR-1 or K-1 visa, you are going to be required to fill out the I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form (US citizens have to do this as well). One of the big items is the social security number. As soon as you have that and a temp green card I believe you are good to go.
http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-9.pdf
I recommend reading the flows from the K-1 and CR-1 Guides on this site, looking at timelines and the pros and cons for each. Nutshell for me with hubby and I were deciding: CR-1 takes longer but you arrive with a green card immediately. K-1 gets you together quicker but you have to wait 60-90 days for Employment Authorization after you marry. Deciding factor for my hubby and I were the finances...we decided that financially it was better for us to wait a bit longer and have him be able to work as quickly as possible upon arrival. But that's just us. Every couple has different needs.

No, it is 90 days to marry once you enter the US not upon receiving the visa, so it would technically still work. You can also slow up the process in other ways if it going too quickly.

No, it doesn't matter when you file as long as you've met in the last 2 years. If you are in the US now, know that it is common to file while the foreign fiancé is in the States (we did with our original I-129F and had only known each other 5 months).
Only you know which one will be best for you. The K1 can take as little as 4 months, but when processing changes or depending on which service center, you could end up with 9 months. The CR1s can take let's say 6+ months, but lately have been 9+ months.
The thing is that you can't predict the processing times of the future or what USCIS will do with its service centers, so it is best to just pick the one that works best for you. Be aware that with a K1, the immigrant can't work or travel right away. EAD/AP usually come in 60-90 days, but a lot of couples seem to struggle with that time period.

This all seems very doable except maybe the contract end date coinciding with the you immigrating date. The process might take a while, but hey, it is all worth it in the end, isn't it?
Have you also considered doing a K1 fiancé visa which you could file now? This way you would get married in the US when she returns from her contract. It seems it would be more likely for you to meet that deadline rather than a spouse visa with current processing times.

My husband came over for 5 days under the Visa Waiver Program. I would think you would also be coming in with that as well as Australia is covered under the VWP.
Just leave the country exactly as planned and don't file for any spouse visa until you have left the US. I am going to quote my lawyer's email for you here, keeping in mind I am the USC and spouse is not:
"As long as your spouse leaves after getting married in the US, and applies for the immigrant visa outside the US, then there is no presumption of immigration fraud. Immigration fraud issues arise when a person enters the country on a non-immigrant visa (such as a tourist visa or visa waiver), knowing they are going to remain in the US and apply for a green card. You can’t come into the US on a non-immigrant visa, when you know you are not going to leave and have immigrant intent. But if he leaves after marriage, then no such issue arises."
Once he left he has not come back and will not until we get the visa. I leave the US to see him. Technically he might be able to come back but we are not willing to risk at this time as he cannot prove ties to the Netherlands (unemployed). See the sticky thread in the CR-1 forum about visiting under CR-1 processing.

My husband flew here to North Carolina for a long weekend, we married and he immediately left to go back to the Netherlands the next day. Once he was gone I filed for the CR-1 spouse visa. This was per the advice of my lawyer. If you intend to stay in the US after the wedding it's immigration fraud, if you leave and then file it's not. The key though is when you are going through customs, be careful what you say as you don't want to lie to them, but you also don't want to say you are getting married.

I honestly thought the point of a forum was to discuss, I came here to discuss and find out what options are available to me and declutter the shroud of options, dead ends and everything else I was running into to.
I'm being realistic, but can I not also be light hearted about it all? Is there a need to scream in my face? I never once tried to put this down to a lovey dovey romance. I said I'm here, this is what I want to do, can you help me with options. I'm aware I may not be able to take the road I want and may not be able to marry the woman of my dreams (is that the lovey dovey part? that I want to marry someone?)
I honestly don't know what you're problem is, but you're coming off like I've offended you to some degree.
As for the terms, I don't see a point in learning those terms...I'd ask you to elaborate but I really don't want to read another post which comes across to me as rude.
I'm not hiding anything either. But the details I'm after don't require me to divulge all of my personal life stories. The information I provided should be enough to get the answers I'm after, which it has been.
Again, I really don't know what your issue is. I came here for advice and perhaps a little comfort from people who have been in this situation before, not to be berated by someone who I seem to have offended by talking about what this website and forum is built for.

Can we just calm it down...I get it's a long process and I get it's about dotting i's and crossing t's and a tonne of paperwork. I'm not going into this completely blind and oblivious. If plans need to change then they need to change, that's why I'm here, to weigh up options and decide the best way to go about this. But for now we're going to try and see this through the way we would prefer.
I am white, and under 30. I'm not sure what you mean by 'relatively privileged' - I've never been privileged, unless you count the fact that I've found the woman of my dreams then by all means I am. It's taken a lot of time, hard work and years to get myself to where I am now and away from the food handouts supplied by the salvation army.
We have in a general sense talked to our families about marriage, and thrown hypotheticals at them such as eloping. They've all given their blessings for if/when it happens. Like I said, we've discussed this in great length with each other as well, we're not tredding on toes here. There is no need to get hung up on this. It really is a non event in this case. I'm sorry to hear about your mother.
Her sister and brother-in-law are living in Hawaii, so far they're the only ones to know about it and approve. They will be helping in the ceremony, so I don't see this as being an issue...but who knows, it could be.
I have talked to them about moving away, they're all well aware that those are my intentions and I have their blessings and support. To quote my dad "you need to do what makes you happy so if that makes you happy then go for it, I'll have a place to stay when I come over for a holiday". I currently live away from them anyway.
Her family are wanting me there as much as I want to be there. They're already job searching for me which surprised and talking to an imigration lawyer which I just heard about the other night. I don't think that they'll have an issue with co-sponsoring me and helping in any way possible since they are a very tight family.
I have a BA in IT - I've been working in it for a number of years now with several quick succession promotions along the way. I don't want to crystal ball gaze here but I don't think computers are going anywhere anytime soon. It may take some time but I'm confident that I'll find work. If need be, I'm happy to rebuild and start from the bottom again, I'll take anything that is going. I've got numerous years of bar work and general customer service skills to call upon if need be. I'll have the finances available to get me through until I can land something.
I'm really just here looking for advice on the process which I think I've got (or can at least find out more about easily enough), not relationship advice. Again I appreciate the concern on that part and it's definitely something we've considered. But if we could please drop that it would be appreciated.