Hi Lance,
Sometimes remote desert or plains style locations like Alice Springs are not so good because of dust particulate in the air. In addition they have minimal elevation. Sometimes they can turn it on, unfortunately any wind usually turns it to stone.
I observe regularly at Coonabarabran. I will be going there for 10 days at the end of Feb and that will make 28 days at Coona in the past year. I do a similar schedule every year. Last October we hosted a group of 8 Americans including Dave Kreige from Obsession telescopes at Coonabarabran for 8 days. We had several great nights. Two nights were superb. On one of those nights Dave Kriege, who has observed all over the world, commented that these were the best observing conditions he had ever experienced, apart from 1 solitary night atop Mona Kea, which has an enormous elevation advantage. Coona has the advantage of protection from light pollution within a 200km radius of the AAT at Siding Springs, which is about 30km out of Coona. They have a light pollution protection policy where every external light within a 200km radius of the AAT has to have a top cover preventing any light shining upwards. It works very well. I got genuine "best" repeated readings on my Unihedron SQM of 21.8 to 21.88 from 15km out of Coona in October. That sky quality is exceptional, and you will not see it anywhere in CONUS.
I have also observed in many other parts of Australia and New Zealand. The single best observing sight I know of in Australia is atop Mt Kaputar, which is a little ways out of Narrabri and about 1.5 to 2 hrs drive from Coonabarabran. It is a national park and it offers the best combination of exceptional seeing, very dark skies, combined with brilliant transparency and good elevation. Unfortunately from your point of view I don't think there is the likelihood of building an observatory up there as it is a national park. You can always ask though.
http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/...=N0038&Type=xo
Cheers,
John B