Nope, it's $18k, but it's not a wage. It is low (Australia doesn't have the money that US universities are awash in), but it's for things like international travel to conferences and the like.
True, its a pure travel scholarship, with all likelihood the student won't even get to touch the money. It will all handled by the university's finance department (it was in my case).
And $18k is huge for an Australian travel grant, they're usually just $2k to $5k, some examples:
http://www.swinburne.edu.au/media-centre/news/2014/08/victor...