g'day neilc.
i live at gatton near brisbane. if you bought your cs through smok-king ovens then you know they have a supply of hickory, oak, and beech chips as free samples come with the smoker. smo-king have the exclusive rights to cs ovens in oz. did you buy it from them or second hand privately?
i had great success using australian native timbers. blackbutt, mountain ash (tassie), iron bark, bush oak, for smoking trout and nitrate brined chickens. (ive had mixed results since ive tryed to smoke chooks without brining in nitrates.) most eucalypts seem to be good for smoking. i can't reccomend any softwoods though but there would be some. try the hardwoods on cheap cuts first. i have even used sawmill sawdust that was from a variety of hardwood native timber (stringy bark, messmate, blue gum, tallowood, brush box, etc) and it worked just fine. do be careful with the cs though. it is a REALLY efficient smoker and you only need a small ammount of wood.
this forum is pretty cool eh? makes you realise how far behind we are compared to the yanks in this smoking caper.
have you smoked food before? if so what?
commercially?
good luck. you'll get all the help you need here. these blokes.... they all "da bomb"!