Taylor signed a two-year contract with the Queensland Rugby Union yesterday and says he wants to make a fresh start after a couple of seasons blighted by injury.
The 25-year-old qualifies to play in Australia as he was born in Brisbane.
He shifted to Auckland when he was 2.
Taylor, a No 8 and sometime lock, has played 14 games for Otago and eight games for the Highlanders.
He missed all of this year's Super 14 after injuring the patella tendon in a knee in a pre-season club game in March.
Last year he tore knee cartilage and had a limited season for Otago.
Taylor said a new beginning and a new environment would help his career.
"I've had a couple of serious injuries over the last couple of years. It was a tough decision to make, to leave. I've lived here pretty much since I left school and Dunedin is home to me.
"But I've been over to Brisbane and they [Queensland] impressed with their whole set-up and the way they want me to be a senior player. That really impressed me. They had done a lot of research into me."
Taylor went to Wesley College and was brought south by Otago coach Steve Martin in his first year out of school.
Taylor confirmed he had been been in contact for years with Queensland officials who had first approached him when he was captaining the Otago under-19 side in 2002.
Taylor said Reds officials had wanted him to come to Queensland after he made his first Super 14 start last year.
Ironically, his first game in the Super 14 was against Queensland.
"Eddie Jones wanted me to come over then but I was too excited after playing my first game in the Super 14 to think about that."
He said the time was right to move, and he felt he was not being disloyal to Otago, which had stuck by him while injured, but a player's career was short and he wanted to play in a new environment.
His knee had not fully healed but was coming along nicely.
Taylor said he would like to play another game for Otago, to get his blazer, but that was unlikely.
His contract with the New Zealand Rugby Union and Otago ends at the finish of Otago's involvement in the Air New Zealand Cup.
Money was not a big issue in moving, he said.
Taylor played all his club rugby for Kaikorai, which had been "great".
Reds coach Phil Mooney told The Australian newspaper yesterday he had kept an eye on Taylor since 2002 and decided to sign him after the retirement of David Croft and John Roe.
Mooney said Taylor was a dynamic athlete and a good line-out option.
Otago Rugby Football Union chief executive Richard Reid said Taylor had been hampered by injuries since his debut for Otago and the rugby public had not seen the best of him.
The union wished him well with his future.
Martin said Taylor would be a loss, not only on the field, but also to the team environment.
