As per Mental's suggestion... Take her to Bintel and ask the guys there.
I'd also strongly suggest before you do that, if possible find someone with a couple of decent scopes and head out to a dark sky so she can get a taste of what to expect from something similar, there are several members here in Sydney (self included).
The key decisions will come down to:
a) is this for visual use only, if so is her interest more in the solar system (planets and moon), or more interested in deep space (nebulae, galaxies)...
b) is she inclined towards photography, with a DSLR ?
c) is she reasonably comfortable with the idea of navigating around the sky from a map (star charts) and learning to recognize some of the constellations - if not you'll be looking for one that is equipped with digital setting curcles or computerised GOTO capabilities, ie you dial things up from a handset and if you are lucky it points at it, however this assumes she can set it up right in the first place.
d) the physical aspects of dragging it out and setting up. A decent-sized big dobsonian reflector is well within your budget but might rapidly finish up stored in the back of a garage if she can't manage it easily.
Telescopes are a bit like cameras - there's little point owning a behemoth if it's too inconvenient to use. A scope that will be loved and much used is one that is convenient, gives a nice view, and goes everywhere, even if it's a tad smaller than you might dream of.
This is why (for example) many observers here own a 100mm refractor - it, is always useful, even if they also own a bigger scope.
One or two books will be essential, Nortons's Star Atlas in particular, and perhaps Sky Atlas 2000 for some deeper maps.
Lastly, eyepieces. For a beginner 3 budget ones are enough - low, medium and high power. Later she can keep an eye out for better ones secondhand on the forum here, or on
www.astromart.com, though it would be best to wait until she knows which ones are best suited to the scope she has.
Once the primary needs are sorted the chaps at Bintel will sort out a solution, I'll refrain from doing that here.