See my post on the for sale forum;

[dev.forums.reprap.org]

Basically looking to trade electronics know how and resources for mechanical parts/fab. If anyone is keen let me know.

I'm building a wooden mendel near lismore, just 2 1/2 hours south of brisbane.

wooden-mendel.blogspot.com

welcome Triffid_Hunter and Deano. I have an unreliable repstrap in BNE that I'm working to make more reliable in my 1% spare time. :-) It's been a fun build, but not a fast one. I've been 2+years in the making.
my suggestions:
Take whatever fast-track method/s you can afford.
Get the makerbot electronics if you can ( I have gen2 with an arduino mega, but prettty much any gen2 or gen3 will do).
Don't expect anything to work out of the box.
Learn the code.
Invest ( or aquire ) good stepper motors and stepper drivers.

Hi,

I am interested in building a MakerBot. I am in Gosford (north of Sydney) but travel to the Gold Coast regularly, sometimes by road. I have a brother in Lennox Head.

Anyway, I am interested in designing my own electronics.