Does Microsoft Not Want Australian Money?

I've been using a trial version of Visual Studio 2008 for a while now and the time has come to buy a license. So I click on the VS2008 license pop-up which takes me to Microsoft's site ... a couple of hours later I've given up. I do not think it is possible for somebody in Australia to buy a license on-line from Microsoft.

The Microsoft site takes you to their "Windows Marketplace" which is a front end to a regional "Microsoft Store". You must select a country ... no surprise Australia is not listed. Only about half a dozen countries are listed and I tried all of them. If you choose USofA you need to enter a US state. If you choose UK then your offered European countries, but no Australia. Similar story for the others, or I could not read Japanese, Korean, German, etc.
I tried navigating from the AU site and tried different links. Humbug! I'm feeling very unwanted. I dunno if it is a web site fault, an oversight in letting us know we a 'special', or if I've just missed the right link.