mate, for what you are describing you would need a minimum of 5.5 mtrs. For a boat that size with a reasonable outboard you will struggle with your budget.

There are the old arguments of ali vs glass. It depends on what you want, ali is durable but glass has a softer ride. Dont get hung up on outbaord brands, yamaha is probably the motor of choice but all modern motors, if serviced regularly are reliable

Have any boat checked prior to purchasing by a qualified mechanic. 

Go and do yojr skippers ticket as a starting point.

Dont buy prior to summer as there is a mad rush to buy anything on the market, great if your selling but no good for buying,

Go to the boat shops and talk to the guys there, they are usually pretty reasonable.

There are so many variables there are to many to mention.

I would try to buy the latest model with the lowest hours that your bugdet will allow

I don't want to sound like a killjoy, but any boat that meets those requirements for $10,000 is likely to have some major issues and if it does, it could become a nightmare fairly quickly.

The way I see it, you either have to change your budget or your objectives with the boat. One way to increase your budget would be to consider going partners with one or two other people. This has some pretty obvious disadvantages (i.e. not necessarily having access to the boat all the time and/or having to hit up your partner(s) for cash on an on-going basis), but it means you not only split the initial costs, but ongoing costs as well.

If partnership is not the go for you, try reducing your expectations of what you want to use the boat for. If you want to catch some fish and dive for crays, an open hull with a tiller steer could tick that box and come within budget. Seeing as it's your first boat, it would probably be a good way for you learn the basics as you go.

Other considerations:
- Storage
- On-going costs (regos and servicing)

Best tip I can give is go to a newsagent and grab yourself any copy you can of Jeff Webster's second hand boat series.

Actually better still just go to http://www.jeffwebster.com.au/
and order the whole lot (or at least some), may cost you around $150-$200 for the lot but will save you a hell of a lot more than that in the long run so consider it money well spent.

He sums up in simple terms what boats are better than others, what is the price range for particular boats (ranging from poor to good condition) and all the traps and pitfalls of buying a second hand boat.

PS Condition of the motor is the most important of the lot followed closely by the hull (i.e. nothing wrong with an old hull as long as its solid) the trailer is last but shouldn't be neglected in the purchase either.

Good luck
Paul

Cheers for the advice, I'm planning on getting my skippers ticket next summer, and not getting the boat til winter. Figured prices might be a bit more reasonable then.

I might be able to extend the budget to $15k, depends on how bad the tax man hits me this year and next. Would that be a more reasonable amount or am I still quoting too low?

 15k should get you a nice winter bargain, just gotta be able to pounce on it when it comes up, I have a 5.8 ally which I took 5 people to rotto the other weekend , no worries. You should be able to get something 5-6m with a 2 stroke for 15k probably early 2000's , checking the trailer is important, can be a fair bit of money to repair, but you have your boat on it, and if your boat ends up on the pavement, well hopefully you have insurance. Older fibreglass hulls might have transom rot if they have had water sitting in them. I would recommend looking just above your price range, then barter down. Also go free diving course, less gear, probably save $1000 on buying dive equipment, get crays no worries. And we had 5 free diving off the boat, couldn't have that many on tanks! 

sorry to sound negative, but everything you've mentioned you want to do, is honestly a bit of a daydream, and even more so on that budget (yep, even $15k).

 Go spend $10+k on a decent relatively new, but secondhand dinghy. Have it for a few years, earn your stripes. Go out when the weather is good. Adjust your fishing to suit the seasons. Squid in winter, crabs in summer, 3 mile pinks in autumn, etc. 

then, when you can handle a small boat, read and understand the weather, reverse a trailer, navigate on water, know how to read sounder/plotter/tides, understand the importance of washing and maintaining a boat and motor, and most importantly, enjoy everything about it, THEN look at upgrading to something a bit bigger. a dinghy wouldn't depreciate as much as a big boat. You'll get a good return. 

 Yep I'm with Scotto. Grab a nice tinny. Learn the ropes on that. You can do a heap of stuff with the tinny, won't need a new car to tow it either. 

Goodluck

Chris. 

 Instead of a tinnie, see if you can pick up a polycraft 4.55.. They ride a lot softer.

i definately agree with the others. Start out with something smaller to build up some experience first.

I reckon you will use it a LOT....

when you have a bigger boat, you will not use it as much and will actually question yourself whether you should have kept the smaller boat!

maybe a Westerncraft Whaler may be just the ticket also! 

 Hi mate. I have a Voyager Ltd and it's just under 5.6metres. It's good enough for fishing, cruising , Rotto. When I bought it, it had an old mercury 135hp outboard on it, which died. It was powerful enough to pull 2 tubes/donuts. Now it has a Johnson 150 so abit more power.

Fishing: comfortable enough for up to 4 guys to fish, but ideally 2-3.

Cruising: it has a cabin with V-shape berth for kids or small adults to rest. There's also enough room in the cabin for a porta-potti to keep the ladies happy. 

I've added a foldable bikini/rocket launcher to assist with suncover and rod storage.

To sum it all up, the boat has costed me about 13k and it does most of the things you mentioned. It is also a very seaworthy hull!

There's a few voyagers for sale on gumtree for less than 10k. If the hull, motor and trailer are in good nick, then its a very good buy for less than 10k. All the the extras such as bait wells can he added later.

Not sure how much your car can tow, but my boat package comes in at around 1500kg.

Hope that helps!