Hi guys,
I live in the north of the UK (Leeds), I am very envious of your Australian clear skies and southern hemisphere constellations, which I have never seen.
I've been into astronomy for as long as I can remember but only got a telescope, a second hand celestron C8 SCT, about 5 years ago. Since then I've now got a shed with a roll off roof and a pier mount. I've also got a ST80 guide scope both mounted on a celestron advance GT.
Astrophotography is my thing, and I rarely observe visually, but I'm learning very slowly how challenging astrophotography is.
I've got a QHY5 guide cam and a DSLR for deep sky images. But the QHY5 is great for planetary and lunar photography also. The moon particularly is easier to video if you don't have to worry about auto guiding.
It is sure a great interest astronomy, I dabble in everything, asteroid occultations, galaxies and nebula, planets, variable stars photography, and a bit of comet hunting.
You've got a great forum here, and I look forward to asking you some questions and sharing my experiences.
Mike.