Hi @maddi. I went down a similar path to @Lisa1407. My tumours were found through Breastscreen which takes you down the Royal Melbourne Hospital path if you choose that option. I chose to use my private health insurance at RMH and also when doing chemo and radio at Peter Mac and had all the excesses and gaps paid for by the fund.
Along with @kmakm, I'm bamboozled by how it all works  :s .
I know too if you live more than 100km you'll be eligible for the Victorian Patient Transport Assistance scheme which subsidises travel and accommodation costs. Think Pink in St Kilda Rd also have a 2 bedroom apartment where you can stay whilst you're in Melbourne having treatment. The Cancer Council also helps with this.
Good luck going forward xox

Also my Oncologist works closely with my Breast Surgeon and my Gynaecology Oncologist. 

As we start this process we tend to look at the immediate as we don't realise it's a journey with a team.  

As I reflect occasionally I tend to say who'd thought!  

My experience was similar to @iserbrown, went private, my surgeon and his breast care nurse were excellent. My surgeon works closely with my oncologist - his referral but my choice, also happy with that outcome. 7 years after diagnosis, I still see them yearly and both are happy for me to call or visit if I have any issues or queries. That degree of consistency can be hard to achieve, public or private, simply as practitioners move/change like anyone else. But I have valued it. Best wishes. 

I went private and my surgeon has his team so I was taken care of by his breast care nurses and physio. The breast care nurses followed up once I was home and even today 4 years down the track they are accessible if I have concerns.  Recently I had contact and she was very happy to help and encourage me to ring again if I feel the need.

We all have varing experiences. Have you been referred to someone yet?

PS With the benefit of hindsight I’d probably go as a private patient in a public hospital for surgery. My breast surgeon practices both in the private and public systems and tbh I have learnt the after surgery support is much better in public system - once I paid in the top private hospital they had no further interest unlike others I know who went public.

I support going public for radiotherapy .You can blend private and public treatment eg private surgery and public radiotherapy.I had private radiotherapy and only 3 weeks - am in top private health and was out of pocket more than $2000 many on here with longer treatment have paid much more.The radiotherapy treatment is the same public/private with bar the initial mapping appointment taking around 15 minutes per session - the lengthiest bit of my radiotherapy treatment was finding a car park.

@maddi  I've had everything done in the public system in Qld. at no cost except parking and prescriptions. In fact, most medications during chemo were free (I'm a pensioner too). Also - going by what I've read on this forum, some people who go private are daunted by the potential cost of additional tests & scans and don't 'automatically' have them. In the public system, I was sausaged through every possible test before and after surgery - top-to-toe bone scan, CT scan(&follow-up tests for spots on my liver & thyroid and I'm now in the system forever to keep checking my thyroid), MRIs, ultrasounds, biopsies, X-rays, electro-cardiogram, blood tests, chemo (and when I got an infection during the first cycle they gave me the special injection - worth well over $1000 - free for the next time), radiation (and the radiation oncologist gave me free StrataSRT gel), etc. etc. Also, I now have an ongoing relationship with the public system, which has huge benefits. Just over four weeks ago, I had my revision surgery to have my problematic reconstruction removed - having successfully self-advocated to change my surgeon - and am very pleased with the results. However, an infection developed in my wound after a couple of weeks and I emailed photos to the BC nurse, who immediately rang me and said yes, it's an infection - go to GP and get ABs and I'm making an appointment for you to see the surgeon on Monday. When I went in, he identified a seroma and drained it immediately to avoid complications if the infection spread to it. He said to take more courses of ABs and he made an appointment for me to come back to him in two weeks. These are the things we've paid our taxes for, for all those decades. 
All the best with your decision-making and your treatment. Hugs.

I went private, ignorantly and in haste. Despite having private health insurance it's cost me a lot of money. If I had a do over, I'd try to do the private patient in a public hospital thing. Tbh I still don't really fully understand how all this stuff works. It seems like a minefield to me.

Hi @maddie
Being in the same boat as you (western Vic Rural, pensioner, but have paid private cover for many years) my high grade extensive DCIS required a very quick mastectomy.  I could go Regional for the mastectomy and later found I could have had some reconstruction but my choice of a DIEP would have meant Melbourne.
The surgeon waived all fees for going private but I was out of pocket for the anesthetic, the usual gap at the hospital and some smaller costs.
A Melbourne DIEP would have been around $20k out of pocket with using my private cover, though.  That was out of the question.
If you prefer a private room and the comfort that provides then go that way as i did.  I prefer to see the same specialist each visit.
If the public hospital is a teaching hospital the hospital can over-ride the surgeon and you could have students (with the surgeon supervising) doing the surgery on the day.
Hope this helps.  All the best.
Anne