I've just finished first year. Out of 8 subjects, two were straight chem and one was medicinal chem, which also relies on chemistry concepts. HSC stuff tended to be covered in the first few lectures (i.e. very quickly), and I think it would be rather difficult to pick up without a chemistry background. That being said, it's unlikely that the knowledge from the bridging course would stick with you permanently because it's so intensive, although it would help you become familiar with basic terms. After first year, there are no subjects run by the school of chemistry, but I assume that other subjects rely on the foundations from first year. Bottom line: if you didn't study chemistry at school because you didn't have an interest in it, you're probably making life unnecessarily difficult by studying pharmacy. If you didn't study it for other reasons, it's going to take quite a lot of time to start thinking in chemistry terms.
Overall workload has been covered on other threads, but basically first year is 4 (if you're lucky) or 5 days a week. From memory:
First semester
Chemistry - 3x one hour lectures, 3 hour lab, 1 hour tutorial
Human Biology - 2x one hour lectures (3 for the last few weeks), 3 hour lab or 1 hour workshop (alternate weeks)
Foundations of Pharmacy - 3x one hour lectures, 2 hour workshop
Basic Pharmaceutical Science - 3x one hour lectures, 1 hour maths workshop for the first 5 weeks, then 2 hour workshop the following weeks
Second semester
Chemistry - same
Molecular Biology - 2x one hour lectures, 5 hour lab every fortnight
Social Pharmacy - 3x one hour lectures, 2 hour workshop
Physical Pharmacy - 3x one hour lectures, 3 hour lab every fortnight
On top of this there's obviously assignments and studying. Very individual - I probably spent around 5 hours a week, but that's on the low side. Some of my friends spent 20-30 hours, which is probably more realistic if you want to do well.
i guess i didn't pick chem because it didn't appeal to me, but then for uni preferences i'm leaning towards the 'sciency' courses because i'm a mathematical/science type...so even regardless of any science copurse i choose it will ultimately have chemistry...i was told that pharmacy is more biology than chemistry from past students