The cabin is about 2 hours from the centre of Sydney (on a good traffic day) but it’s surrounded by wilderness so there is little light pollution. The camera sensor is better than your eye (imagine if you could store up the light for 30 seconds and get one image). So you never see the Milky Way like that in colour with your own eyes. In low light you eyes use your rods which are B&W (your cones see in colour) . What you do see is the dark bits as pitch black against the lighter bright bits which are milky white. So you can easily see the pattern of the galactic core. The aboriginals thought it looked like an emu.
It is harder to see in the North partially due to increased light pollution from higher populations and particulate emissions , but primarily as the galactic season to see it (when it’s opposite to the sun) peaks in June and July which is winter in the South and Summer in the north. So the days are long in the north at that time of year and twilight can extend for hours at most inhabited northern latitudes which reduce its intensity.
Hope that helps.
Ahh that explains why there's so many interesting colours in especially the longer exposure stuff! Thanks :)