Some unis/courses do make earlier offers (you may have seen this during the firs time you applied straight out of school, but obviously you can't get an offer in October/November when
HSC results aren't even out!)
It's very dependant on the course and the uni though. I just did a midyear transfer and despite being told repeatedly by Macquarie they didn't do early offers, I got an early offer for my course!
Might as well apply, you'll get a letter if you do get an offer so you won't miss finding out.