Hi Steph,
Welcome to the hobby.
You've already received some very good advice in the other posts. I'll just add that the Astronomical Association of Queensland has a wide range of telescopes for hire to members. Membership & hire is quite cheap.
They have 12 inch skywatcher goto dobsonians, and 8 inch Schmidt Cassegrains on HEQ 5 equatorial mounts among others. They also run regular observing nights every month. There is a short observing night (weather permitting) after the monthly meeting and another deep sky night at a remote location. Before you spend a lot of money, go to some field nights and look through diffferent scopes and when you narrow it down, test drive a few different scopes for a couple of months each. through the rental program.
the web site is : -
http://www.aaq.org.au
Good luck
Joe