Hi Matt and welcome
to the forum
the best beginners book that I know of is, unfortunately
-written mainly for Northern Hemisphere observers (so all the maps and directions are upside down)
-not easily available in Australia (I had to buy it from Amazon). A copy was available in my local library though, so you never know-check there first
if you are willing to live with these problems it is a great book and I cannot recommend it highly enough
It is called
Turn Left at Orion
by Guy J. Consolmagno, Dan M. Davis
Another book that I have heard highly recommended is :
Nightwatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe
by Terence Dickinson
again same issues-mainly written for Northern hemisphere observers I think..I havent used this one myself.