Hi Mike,
Welcome to IceInSpace
What part of Sydney are you in?
As mentioned by Carlton, it would be ideal to turn up at a local observing session to have a look at options and chat. Most are very friendly and love sharing information and experiences. We all started somewhere.
People will ask you what you intend to do with it, so as to recommend the best setup for that. However, if you are like me and most people sticking their toe in the hobby, you may not know.
Don't make the mistake of saying mainly observing but may want to take photos too. As this will generally end up with you being sold a Newtonian on an EQ mount. (that is an equatorial mount). As Carlton mentioned, these are problematic to use for several reasons, but essential for quality long exposure photography.
A Newtonian on a Dobsonian mount is simple to use, best bang for buck as far as what you can see for your dollar and most recommended beginner scope. And they are resellable. Note from y signature, I still use one as my main scope.
Happy to discus further with you or chat one on one if you are near the Central Coast.
Also, as you'd imagine, this is a very common question. So if you do a search you should find lots of previously delivered advice on the subject.