Dear Australian reader, Mr Bezos would like to sell you an Amazon Kindle

He would.  Cost (for Kindle and a leather cover) including shipping is just under $400 Australian (note: the exchange rate's in our favour at present at around 90c to the $1US).   Toddle over to http://www.amazon.com/ and see...

They've sorted international wireless, so if you're in area (check them thar coverage maps...) download time is likely to be under a minute, but books are $2 more than US Kindle owners pay. 
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What isn't immediately clear is whether publishing territory will come into play - ie. if the rights aren't available 'for this geographic area' - the trouble I've run into with Audible.com - is the book available to Australian Kindle owners?  Are we shopping from the same range as US Kindle owners?  There is a link to a country-specific page to address country-specific issues including content availability, but it doesn't outline content limitations beyond saying it offers over 280,000 books to Australia (and the main Kindle page offers US buyers over 350,000 books).  Me, I'd want to know which are the 70,000 unavailable to me here in Oz....
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But even so, it's a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry interesting change to the e-book landscape here.  By far the cheapest specific e-book device I'm aware of here (the Dymocks Iliad at around $1000 looks very naff by comparison), and the largest range of books (caveat: still depends on which books...).
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And of course there are all the general limitations/differences in relation to a Kindle edition.  Can't be lent (unless you lend the device), sold/donated, for instance.  I'd rather lend out a $30 book than a $400 device in the library (even assuming there is a Kindle setup accommodating school library ownership/use).
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Ah, but is there a lazy $400 lying around Chez Skerricks, the modest palais this blog calls Emoh Ruo?  Hmmmmm. 
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Cheers
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Ruth
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PS Anyone want me to evaluate one?????  I'll write you a lovely report...
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