A lot will come down to where you will be, where and what you want to hunt, and how this will all happen. Australia is a very big place and if you're going to be somewhere down south, the effort required to get up north to chase a buffalo (for example) will be significant. It will also be next to impossible to line up a buffalo hunt without paying an outfitter - unless someone on here has some private access and they'd be willing to do a swap hunt. Also, July is very early in the season for a buff hunt so it might be tough hunting, and any outfitters may be booked out already. Just something to consider in that space.
The easiest option would be to look at chasing sambar deer on public land in Victoria. It's a simple license to acquire and then you just have a look on a map and start hunting. The amount of public land access is enormous. There is a lot of opportunity on sambar but they are a very difficult animal to hunt at the best of times, and doing it with a bow will be even tougher. At that time of year it'll be very cold (for Australian standards) and a lot of the road access to higher elevations is blocked because of snow, so lots of people either hunt the river flat areas where sambar have been pushed down to find feed, or backpack in past the closed gates on the roads in case they know of some spots where sambar will be feeding. I stress again, it doesn't get cold like it does in the upper parts of USA or Canada, but some of that Alpine National Park country can be unpredictable with storms. Most people who backpack into those spots at that time of year (be it river flats or higher areas) will always have good rain gear, some decent insulation, and appropriate emergency stuff for starting a fire - particularly in spots where everything may be wet for extended periods.
I usually head down that wya to chase sambar every July and this year should be no exception but it depends on a few things in my personal life. If the dates line up I'd be happy to have you tag along with me and a mate or two. We aren't sambar experts by any means but it'd make it easier than having to figure out where to go yourself. I don't think my spots are any better or worse than anyone else's. Chance of seeing sign is very high, chance of seeing a deer is high, chance of getting one on the ground with a bow is fairly slim.
Here are some pictures I took last July while backpacked in chasing sambar.
Regarding the bow itself, Victoria has legal minimum requirements to chase sambar deer. A bow of at least 50 pound draw weight (longbow, recurve, or compound) with an arrow having a total weight of 400gns, with the broadhead having minimum of two cutting blades. It's pretty straight forward. If you chase some of the lighter deer species in Victoria you need even less weight. I've attached links below for you to read.
www.gma.vic.gov.au
www.gma.vic.gov.au
Honestly, for anything besides bufallo or scrub bulls, just bring a bow setup that would be capable of taking an elk and you'll be fine. Sambar are fairly big/tough deer but they aren't as big as an elk. The issue with sambar is finding them after they've been hit as a lot of them live in some very thick country.
If for whatever reason you find yourself being able to chase other game like goats, pigs, fallow deer, etc, an elk archery setup would still be fine but you can get away with a little less if need be. A mature boar is certainly tougher than any of those critters and getting through a thick fighting pad that's covered in mud might be a challenge but that's more of an 'up north' situation than what you'll find in most parts of NSW. Most people shoot a compound between 60 and 70 pounds, with an arrow somewhere between 450 and 550 grains. You see a few people here running expandable heads but they aren't very popular as the recovery rate with them still being OK to keep hunting with is nowhere near as high, and it's common for a lot of Aussie bowhunters to use the same broadhead to kill many animals over the course of a year or two. We're lucky that we can hunt limitlessly over here so some of us kill quite a few animals every year.
We have lots of public land hunting in NSW as well but you'd need to get yourself an R license. It's more involved than the Victorian license but still something worth considering. There is a greater variety of game in NSW state forests but some of them can be difficult to hunt and I would say chasing sambar in Vic is a higher chance of success than chasing most other things in NSW state forests, but some people are extremely successful every year in both settings.
Here are some links to read about NSW state forest hunting. If you get a visitor license you will need to be accompanied by an R license holder if you hunt any state forests in NSW. Not hard to find an R license holder (I'm one, for example) but finding someone with good/productive spots who want to take out a stranger from overseas will require some communication.
www.dpi.nsw.gov.au
www.dpi.nsw.gov.au
I also have pigs, deer and goats at some of my private spots here in NSW. Not sure where you would be or how easy it would be to organise meeting up. I could guarantee seeing a few critters but I couldn't guarantee multiple shot opportunities like a guiding outfit may be able to organise. There are plenty of guided opportunities in various places but as I said before, the stuff up north involving scrubbers, buff and pigs usually won't state until August. I know that Kayuga Adventures (one of the best bowhunting outfits in far north QLD) don't start their guiding season for pigs until August, for example.
That doesn’t account for the long drives to get anywhere either. We were 6-8hours from Darwin on dirt roads. Some of that is a huge flood plain in the wrong season- Impassible.
