From an Australian investor experience, the best indicator is actually from the Vanguard site:
https://www.vanguardinvestments.com.au/retail/ret/education/tools/index/IndexChart_Portfolios.jspThis gives the performance of indices over any specified period for the last 40 years or so (does not include taxes and fees but otherwise gives a good indication, since Vanguard are pretty adept at tracking an index).
VTS is a great fund. For an Australian investor,I wouldn't use it as my only find as it's US stocks only in USD (not hedged to aud). In combination with at least VAS (the vanguard Australian stock index etf) and preferably also VEU (world ex-us) you'll get a well diversified portfolio. It also depends how much you have to invest, your investment timeframe and how frequently you'll add to that investment: you don't want brokerage costs to destroy the low-cost advantage of the etf by investing in $1000 lots.
For bonds, stability is key. I'm not personally a fan of overseas bonds as the little I've read on them suggests their return is historically dominated in aud terms by aud bonds. And with such low yields at the moment, term deposits and online savings accounts in Australia actually return more. Until government bond yields rise a few percent I'm personally sticking with online savings accounts and short term deposits (<12 months). But, as well as index bond funds, you can get government bonds in $100 face value bundles directly on the asx now so those are an option too:
http://www.asx.com.au/products/exchange-traded-australian-government-bonds.htmSomething else I thought of to keep in mind. Being in Australia you'll almost certainly have superannuation. For your overall asset allocation (other than maybe some cash you're keeping for short-term and emergency expenses) you should think about your asset allocation across your whole portfolio. So if you do 80% growth and 20% cash and bonds, for example, then that should be taking into account both your super and your non-super funds. And you should take into account the tax impact also: I'm not an accountant but my vague understanding is that bonds/cash and then International share funds should be in Super to the extent possible and Australian Shares (with their franking credits) are good in either super or non-super accounts. But you can do the sums on that. So with my 80/20 example this might mean you have a larger proportion towards bonds in your super and then more Australian share index funds/ETFs in your personal/online brokerage account. But to stay the course with that strategy, you need to be comfortable seeing one balance go down (while hopefully the other goes up). One last thing: it doesn't make much sense to invest in bonds/cash in a personal account if you have a mortgage (as in most cases you'll get a lower rate of interest and then be taxed on top, while with a mortgage extra payments 'earn' their interest tax free and in Australia can often be redrawn without fees).