Hi Adrian. Good luck, I hope you find people in your area soon. It is great to be able to get together with other amateurs.
If you are looking for astronomy courses, try Swinburne. They have fully online astronomy courses from non-assessed courses, to Grad Certificate, Grad Dip and Masters. There could be something there you are looking for. I know they do a couple of Astrophotography based subjects. Lot of work though
