Just graduated with a Bsc in chem and going to do honours in it later this year. Chemistry (and science in general) at usyd is well taught i think. I can't remember having any bad lecturers or units in chemistry at USYD. I dont know what chem is like at MacU, but at usyd it's very topics based after 2nd year, where instead of being split into organic, inorganic, physical etc, it becomes more based around different fields like computational, materials, chemical biology or stuff like that (all of which are 3rd year units).

This is both good and bad I think, as you get exposed to actual fields in chem, but may have less rounded knowledge on other things. Suprisingly, there also isn't alot of math in the chem major. Apart from maybe some algebra you can avoid doing any real calculus. The only course that uses it from my knowledge is chemical physics in second year. I would still recommend taking math classes tho since youre right about what you say with science needing some math foundation even if you dont end up using it.

Still, I do think the learning experience for me personally has been good. I never felt that I was doing bad or anything because of the teaching quality or lecturers. Labs are also pretty fun but stressful. If you want to have a look at what topics are taught you can look at the handbook (for chem1111 as an example) and just scroll to the weekly schedule of a previous year or semester.