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Hi John and welcome.
Just noticing we have a lot of new people from Melbourne area at the moment!!
Anyway, your question is a perennial one, which scope is best?
The short answer is the one that you use the most. And the factors that will affect that are personal such as health and fitness, motivation, areas of interest, technical know how etc.
Add to that budget and you have an interesting conundrum.
I usually recommend a smaller dob in the 8" to 12" range as a starter. Of course a 12" is going big at the beginning and can often result in ones better half wondering why you have just bought a new hot water tank, but you will not have to upgrade any time soon! 8" is usually a safer bet in dobs as they are very portable and easy to handle, not too expensive, can do a hell of a lot and easy to sell on if you decide (as some do) that astro is not for you.
Unless you are dead keen on imaging, usually avoid EQ mounts. A little story now follows. My first scope was a 130mm newt on an EQ mount. Preferred it to a dob because "it looked like a real scope". Used it for about a year and a half and managed to see the moon, Jupiter, Saturn, M42, Omega Centauri and a couple of double stars. That was it. Got an 8" dob and within 6 months had knocked over almost all the Messiers and a few hundred other objects. They are simply much easier to use. There is a reason why at star parties almost all the keen visual guys are using dobs!!
With guided, or technically tracking dobs, you will be paying a fair bit more for electronics. Can make the job easier, but you are often sacrificing aperture for convenience (and reliance on batteries!!)
Anyway
Good luck and the advice about Bintel is spot on BTW!
Cheers
Malcolm
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