Kim, sounds like a 10" Dob would serve you well. The prices you quoted are in US dollars for US customers. One of the best places to buy Dobs in Melbourne is Bintel. I recently found out that they sell both GSO and Synta (aka Saxon aka Skywatcher) Dobs, both great scopes. But in western suburbs, you might like to buy from John Izzo's Telescope Shed (that's where I bought my Saxon dob).
Re seeing deep sky objects, you will always do much better by going to a dark site farther away from Melbourne (100km+), but you'll see quite a lot of them from Melton also.
And re eyepieces, you can get inexpensive ones (<~ $50 ea) that will work well.
But if you can hold off for a little while, before buying anything, I recommend you come along to the Snake Valley astro camp next month, see:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=15171
there will be scopes of all makes and sizes there for you to try.
