Hi Patrick, welcome to the One Ring. I live in Adelaide, so I'm in the same quarter of the world but probably a bit too far away to get a game in anytime soon.
Will you be going to CanCon this year? I really must make the trip over for it, but it won't be this year unfortunately. If you do go, pay a visit to my good friend Nic Robson at the Eureka Miniatures stand and check out his awesome range of minis - not a lot of fantasy, but an awesome range of high quality historical stuff. He'll hopefully have a diorama set with a guillotine from the French Revolution, including the facade of a French farmhouse. I made the master model for that building!
There will be a few people there running LOTR SBG games I think, so hang around their tables and maybe you'll find someone who you can hook up with.
Enjoy the site and feel free to ask any questions about the game, the hobby or Middle-earth in general. If we can't help you, we'll just make stuff up.