On the follow up of the investigation regarding the Australia Visa waiver bilateral agreements in Schengen space, below is the reply we received from the Netherlands Embassy in Canberra.
The Netherlands embassy was one of the embassies that gave us the clearest answer regarding our query on the bilateral agreements, providing even further clarification regarding what could happen when visiting the other Schengen countries that may not have similar agreements.
Extract from email received from the Netherlands embassy in Canberra dated 23 October 2018:
"Australia has Bilateral Visa Waiver Agreements with the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
This means that Australian passport holders can visit these countries without a visa, some of them up till 90 days, but you will need to check with the authorities of these countries personally. These countries are all signatories of the Schengen Treaty following which they have open borders among them. So there are no over land border controls between them, unless you cross a no non-member country on your way from the one to the other. If you fly directly between them there will be no immigration formalities, although the airline or security services may have reasons to check your passport.
Persons of Australian nationality are, according to the Bilateral Visa Waiver Agreement, entitled to stay in the Netherlands for 90 days and consecutively go to one of the other countries (length of stay depending on the agreement of Australia with that country!). Or the other way around, first visit one of those countries and then the Netherlands afterwards.
As stated before there is no border control between these countries, but there will be when you leave the Schengen area. You might be questioned about the length of your stay if it is more than 90 days. You are strongly advised to gather evidence (e.g. airline tickets, hotel bills, receipts, etc.) that show the duration of your stay in each different Schengen/EU country. That way you have the best option to prove that your stay in the entire Schengen area was legal. Not every border official is aware of the agreements so please consider the following:Information on these bilateral visa waiver agreements can be found on the website of the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade:
You are advised to print out relevant information from this site and take it along with you, so you can show the border official/customs the information on the Bilateral agreements."
***ANYONE that wishes to use this information to plan their travels within Schengen space is at their own risk and should seek further confirmation from the embassy of the relevant countries and their border police for further details on these agreements, we are just sharing some of our findings and will not accept any responsibilities for the information stated in this post and related posts. This information was received by email from the listed countries embassies in Canberra when queried about the agreements, their replies are copied to post of each listed country on the lists above, for reference only.
*** If you have experience using the different Australia Visa waiver bilateral agreements in Schengen space give us a shout and help us improve this post contents so that other travellers may more easily plan their journeys.