Welcome Craig!
Good to see another Perthian, Perthite, Perthonian...? here
It's a long road you are embarking on for sure, but go nowhere near the eq3 straight up, that will only lead to frustration and lack of results. Put that money towards the HEQ5 pro as a minimum. You can normally see those for around $600 here on IIS.
I'm also going to suggest getting an ed80 or ed100 refractor as opposed to a newt as they are basically just put on mount and go. Some people will suggest a newt for the apperture to price ratio but newts have a bit more of a learning curve to them to get great results, plus by the time you get to that point you coukd be running 20 to 30 minute subs anyway. So with the amount you'll have to pick up initially, the less frustrated you are at the start the better you will fair.
Cheers,
Jimmy.