See Chris Venter's presentation on the minimum recommended configuration for astrophotography
http://www.dslrfocus.com/support.html
(click on the link to the SPSP presentation to view Powerpoint slides)
and be afraid..be very afraid
....The issue is that astronomy and photography are both relatively expensive intrinsically so combining these two different aspects of the hobby naturally ups the ante a fair bit.
as for the best buy....I'm sure plenty of people will advise looking at Andrews Communications Systems or Aquila Opticals, both Sydney based but ship everywhere
like politics, amateur astronomy is about compromise.. the good news is that once you accept this, you can start making some trade offs and arrive at something that will work for you. for example, webcam/LPI imaging could just squeeze into your budget..if you compromise on the scope you buy