Listen to Andrew, he knows what he's talking about, even if he does work for IBM (j/k)
Who you know, not what you know. Make friends with Andrew if you're in sydney, he's probably a good contact to have
My suggestion to you would be try to get into another 1st/2nd level support role more focused on networks, at least you'll have half the job experience (supporting).
ISP helpdesk may be good to learn on since they use lots of cisco/network stuff
As for your orig question, sounds to me like you want to get into networking, so do your CCNA, and then move onto the next cert, CCNP or whatever tickles your fancy.