Hi there,
I work for a company in Australia that does old media format transfers just as you are asking. We use PC as there is some nice freeware called Scenalyzer that breaks up the footage we capture into scenes for easier editing. However, this is a PC only software.
If at all possible I would borrow a friends windows laptop or get your hands on a PC with Windows and use that free software. You will also need to purchase a capture card like one of these:
THIS THING HERE
Please keep in mind though that these cards are cheap and nasty. I personally haven't had any experience with them but they may work for what you want. Here at my place of work we use internal fire wire capture cards that range from $250-$1000ea.
If you want the best quality possible I would recommend sending it to a business like mine for a professional transfer. Obviously, you are more than welcome to ship it to Australia and we could do that for you, but there may be a business closer to home that offers the same service.
If you want to keep the capturing to a Mac then some of the professional NLE's (Non-linear editing) can Batch capture using these capture cards or from a device that outputs to fire wire. I know that Final Cut Pro 7 and Adobe Premier Pro can do this. Again, expensive if you dont own one.
Hope this helped!
- Mitch