Hi Kate.
Welcome to IIS. In SA, the astronomy club is called ASSA (Astronomy society of SA). Meetings are held on the first Wednesday of each month at Adelaide University on North Terrace. (visitors welcome). Full details at
http://www.assa.org.au/.
Member events are held during the month to allow members to meet and view from dark locations. Public events held most months to allow members of public to view stars and learn more. Again - details of these are available on the website above.
I recommend you take some time to talk to people and check their scopes to help decide what is best for you. Everyone is different and has different ideas of what is best - but if you get to talk to owners and look through scopes - you will get different ideas than talking to sales people who may not be able to demonstrate all options.