I don't know if Australia has any standards for it, but the US FDA requires at least 35% alcohol in vanilla essence, so they probably follow that here too. It's only a little short of vodka, so the wall of alcoholic fumes is normal. (I find it yummy, sometimes pouring a little over vanilla ice cream.)

I've read that alcohol is the best agent for extracting the vanilla flavour, so, if you want to avoid it, maybe just stick with the imitation vanilla essence?