Here's how I've dealt with the fridge question. This is about as low tech as it gets and depends entirely on thermal mass and a bit of insulation. And of course this clearly won't work in all the environments in Australia.
You can get quite stable low fermentation temperatures without a fridge if you have a garage with brick or concrete walls, ideally in a corner that doesn't get much sun on the outside of the walls. Being a cash-poor semi-luddite I find this method great fun, and it depends on the seasons so it hits that Mr. Natural yummy spot too. (You will, however, need a fridge if you want to lager for clarification.)
I grabbed a pallet from the warehouse I work in and a bunch of balled-up used pallet wrap (like glad wrap on steroids) and stuffed the pallet full of the wrap. It's great insulation. Every warehouse ends up with extra pallets and a crapload of wrap and slipsheets - plastic or fibreboard sheets that go between the goods and the pallet. Most would be happy to give you some as long as you don't make it their problem. I got a couple of those mylar emergency blankets from Aussie disposals and stapled them over the outside of the pallet and then nailed some plastic slipsheets over the whole thing. I wedged that into the corner of the garage and then measured the open triangle between the pallet and the walls and used the fibreboard slipsheets, another mylar blanket and some waste lumber I found, as well as more pallet wrap, to make a cap for the compartment.
I put a spare fermenter filled with water in the compartment to add more thermal mass to enhance the consistency of temperature. Using my little corner of the garage in late autumn, winter and early spring I regularly get a consistent 10-12 degree temperature in my fermenting beers. In spring/summer/autumn it keeps a consistent 19-21 degrees even if it gets to 38 in the garage (note the problem brutally hot days bring). The key is to use the cool night air to cool down the thermal mass of the garage and all the stuff in it. Garage stuffed with crap? That's a good thing in this case. Turn it to your advantage!!!
So, there are alternatives, but clearly you have to be a bit of a geek to hang onto this one, and dedicated to making it work. I WILL get a fridge one day but for now this allows me to focus my limited funds on regular brewing.
Hope you work out a good solution.