Any idea how to get the OEM laptops from factory?

The only way to get notebooks directly from the companies that fabricate them would be to become a reseller for their brand or a brand-name reseller of your own. Arima, Asus, Clevo, Compal, Foxconn, Quanta, Uniwill, Wistron, etc. do not sell notebooks directly to end-users. However, you can generally get a better deal by purchasing through their resellers than purchasing notebooks bought and branded by a non-manufacturing OEM, such as Dell, HP, Toshiba, etc.

However, with the exception of Asus, which is selling an increasing number of notebooks under its own brand, most ODMs only sell a few models under their own brand names, so they're a bit harder to find.

edit: Something else to consider is that computer prices are different for different markets. A computer in the United States will generally cost less than the same computer being sold anywhere else in the world (with the possible exception of Taiwan, where the vast majority are manufactured). I don't know why that's the case but still it's true. So if you're in the US now, it might be worth buying a computer while you are here and paying the customs fees, as that still sounds like it would be less expensive than buying the same computer in Australia.

buy from ebay, get it shipped?

im saying go to american ebay.com, but ask the seller if they will ship to dingo-land and youll pay the cost

try not to sound like a scam :P

most of the time, vat/custom tax would negate all the savings

cheers ...