We are linked by email to our overseas agents which can speed up the time. We provide a reference to the source document for all key pieces of information we locate. Usually this will be a reference that can be used to call up the original document from an archive or library. Without knowing the details we can't really say and any quote on this basis could easily be misleading. The time taken to locate an individual can vary considerably.
Common names are harder to isolate.
Small populations in rural areas means there are far fewer people to choose from there than in the cities. The time period also affects the time taken for the search. With an exact year the search can be very quick, a 10 year period may involve many similarly named individuals that have to be checked. The location of the records will determine the costs. Many non-Australian countries charge a much higher rate than we would expect to pay locally.