Welcome to the dark side!
I have been a member of the SFD for a few years but limit myself to freedivng / spearing. I'm not sold on the whole scuba thing myself, ''breathing is cheating" get thrown around as a joke.
I think in vic you are not prohibited from spearing on tanks but it is generally considered un-sporting, like shooting rays and some sharks. Crustaceans and molluscs are fair game.
SFD is the only AUF (Australian Underwater Federation, the peak underwater sport body) competitive club in Vic but there are more social clubs around. I think club Spearo run out the back of Oceanic with the bbq might be your cup of tea with more of a mix of bubblers and spearos but I haven't been down myself. One of the guys at works goes and its first Thursday of the month and says its pretty chilled.
Forum wise specifically for vic that is about it. There are more national ones like spearoz and others around nsw/qld. Ambiguity or flaming tend to be the two flavours on the forum, it is the internet after all. Also, I believe there have been issues with 'greenies' skimming responses off the site for political purposes leading to more ambiguity on the forum. Underneath all that there is a wealth of info for spearing and diving. I always keep an eye on it to find out when the squids are laying eggs, where whiting are holding up etc etc
What sort of info are you after?
A good place to start for dive sites is old dive books or bubbler blogs:
http://users.ncable.net.au/~anewton/ (click on shore dives down the bottom)
http://www.peterfuller.com.au/blog/cate ... y-the-sea/ (check all the vic locations on the right)
Most importantly always dive with a buddy!
After seeing what's happening under the water it's really hard to go back to sitting on top of it
