Keep an eye on Gumtree, not often but sometimes you'll actually find some decent ones with the right dimensions fairly cheap. I picked my A048s up for $120.

What was the defect for?

Maybe message Carmikey, i've never had to have an inspection, but i think he knows the ropes pretty well.
If you need to borrow parts, there may be some SA guys willing to help.....put out a call on this forum as most of the SA guys are pretty good helping other local enthusiasts. Have you met any of them yet?

Drive to the NT and rego it up here..lol
 
They would pass a car with wooden wheels here..
 
I had a MK1 with a 3SGTE, No cat, Roof mount intercooler etc, And they didn't look twice at it haha.

After way more trouble than it should have been the defect has finally been cleared. In the end I ended up doing the following:
#Ignition key is removable while in run position = Picked up another barrel from a Camry at a wrecker.
#Need new engine mounts = Ordered polyurethane ones from Twos-R-Us, and they're lovely!
#Steering wheel missing ADR approval = Picked up cheapest possible wheel at Supercheap Auto
#Rose jointed tie rods = After searching over half the globe for a healthy set I eventually had Rickos Road and Race fabricate new ends and bushings
#Front springs cut/loose = Also surprisingly hard to find. Found a stock set from Corolla Spares in NSW. This made the car about 2cm to high in the front, nothing a spare wheel and 4 brake rotors in the frunk couldn't resolve though. :)
 
Now I'll just have to put all the goodies back on so I'm ready for Mallala on the 11th.

And indeed we both did go to Mallala on Saturday and I'm really glad I did! Despite having to start over to some degree with the setup, the car showed great potential already in the first session by keeping me within a second from my personal best.
 
I kept improving throughout the day but after just improving by 0.01 sec between session 4 and 5 I figured I've had enough, or so I thought. But Rick, and a Christian who was running an AE82 talked me into going out for another session and I'm glad they did.
 
I somehow managed to pull out a completely bonkers lap in comparison with the previous ones and improved by 0.9 seconds. As seen in the video the lap after was abandoned rather quickly so after that I decided I had finally had enough.
 
It was great meeting Rick and we ran into another new SW20 Turbo owner as well whom we told to get on the forum asap.
 
Here's the lap in question. Now getting very close indeed to my <1:30 target. Lighter wheels and a snorkel with a fresh intake which is probably up next should do the trick.
 

Thanks for the advice Timmy, you helped me knock over a second of my previous best...