You need to go up near Darwin in Autumn to get M81 and M82.
M82 is 8 degrees above the horizon in the attached SkyMapPro image for Darwin on 21/4/12 (new moon) when it transits at 8:43pm.
If you want to go further north Thailand has an observatory in the mountains.
http://www.narit.or.th/en/index.php?...id=6&Itemid=12