I love booking my own travel arrangements, but if booking through a travel agent is your thing then it’s worth making sure that the agent you use is licenesed.
A search engine for Australian licenesed travel agents is available on the on the Travel Compensation Fund’s site.
If a licenesed travel agent (God forbid) goes under, defrauds you or otherwise fails to provide the services you’ve paid for then you can make a claim against the Travel Compensation Fund. The fund can provide compensation for losses of up to $25,000, which may incluce consequential losses (for instance having to rebook at a higher price).
Together with paying by credit card (which allows you to seek a chargeback if something goes wrong) for flights and other major costs and taking out travel insurance it’s a simple and worthwhile precaution.
Oz Traveller 