Pere,
Canberra is a major airport hub, has rental cars available from the airport and you can stay in the city in reasonably priced accommodation or even youth hostals and then drive out to the edge of the city to reasonably dark skies if you look away from the city in < 30 mins, and very dark skies in 1 hr (80km). Traffic is light and navigation is easy compared to Sydney or Melbourne so you can concentrate on keeping your car to the left
October is the worst time of year for observing the famous southern hemisphere objects that you are probably hoping to see. The rich Crux Carina region is at it's worst position between sunset and midnight. Eta Carina just reaches 35 degrees altitude before twilight. The magellenic clouds are well placed at this time.
There are also farm stays available in dark skies 1-2 hrs drive from Canberra. No telescopes at these places, just dark skies.
http://www.grovecreekobservatory.org/ has telescopes. They don't give many details about their access terms for visitors. Contact them and ask.
Best of luck
Joe