The most important thing I could say to you is to do your homework thoroughly first. We learned the hard way, we initially moved to Hong Kong and we didn't take long enough to consider all the ins and outs of that move. It cost us a lot of money and although it looked attractive at first we ended up in debt as a result as we did not realise the true cost of living there and what we would need to live somewhere near to the same type of standard we lived in back home in Melbourne (which was nothing special, just life in the eastern suburbs).
Not sure from your original posting if you are looking at an expat package or just a package, they can be very different. A lot of expat packages include rent, school fees (international schools are not cheap), school bus fares, health insurance, utility charges, yearly travel to home city. This can make your base salary a lot more attractive. If you are not looking at an expat package then you will have to check out all of these costs to add into your budget.
Health insurance is available here, and is probably about the same in cost perhaps a bit more, but doctors/hospital tend to be more expensive than back in Melbourne. As I said a lot of expat packages have health insurance as part of the deal, and if yours does don't forget to check to see if yours just covers you or if it includes that whole family as well, many don't! Dental cover is another really important item to think of too.
Perhaps you should consider looking at "portable" health insurance that you can take with you and not lose any benefits or have further waiting periods. There are several international companies who do this sort of thing and it is quite popular with expats around the world. BUPA is one of them sorry can't remember the others,most seem to be British or American. I could not find any of the local companies in Australia that seem to do this though.
Depending on what you eat food can be a lot more expensive here too...meat for instance and deli products are very pricey, as is wine! (just triple the price back in Melb and you will be close). Lots of other things are cheaper though.
The weather will take a bit of adaptation since you would be coming from Melbourne where humidity is practically non existent, but once you are here for a while you just sort of get used to it.
I miss Melbourne and its quirky weather, but our family loves Singapore as it is a lovely place to live. We certainly don't regret the move here. Good luck making your decision.
