You Australians aren't quite alone in your terrible book pricing/availability...
Those of us who live across the ditch have the same problems.
Our book pricing is as bad, or even worse than the Aussie prices
And our books are more often than not non-existant on the tiny shelves of NZ bookstores (although that hasn't stopped whitcoulls from setting aside huge amounts of precious space to the likes of Eddings, Jordan, McCaffrey etc...)