In terms of viewing for myself I'm still relatively new at about 1 and a bit years slowly accumulating various hardware but I think my interest was sparked about 15 years ago when spending time at a friend's property just outside of Wingham, NSW. Was a crystal clear night and the sky was ablaze with stars, the first time I think I really took serious notice of the night sky outside of the city, the experience was fantastic.
Then when my kids were young we did a camping trip to Coonabarabran & The Warrumbungles, visiting Siding Spring as well as looking through the scopes at one of the public observatories (can't remember the name, the one with the mini-golf course
)
At the moment I'm trying to perfect my setup for video-astronomy so I can share my passion more readily against the foibles of a light polluted location.
And of course am suffering from aperture fever which I've managed to suppress but have set a target of early next year to supplement my gear with a 16" truss light bucket