Even if you would find it at a local distributor you still have to pay European VAT, there's no way around it without breaking the law.
There are some money to save though. Here in Sweden customs take 100 SEK for handling the VAT payment, and the VAT here is quite high 25%. You could save some money buying it from for example Germany where you can pay local 19% VAT since it is within EU, and don't worry about customs taking an extra 100 SEK.
If the meter is 155 AUD incl shipping to Sweden the final price would be around 210 AUD delivered to Sweden. If I were to buy it from Germany instead it would be 185 AUD, probably lower since the shipping would be cheaper.