Most County Record Offices do answer mail research requests for an hourly fee. Always request a quote for your research, so then you know how much you are up for. Before you write off and spend a lot of money on research fees, check if the material is already available in Australia. A trip to Melbourne or the hire of a book on inter-library loan is a lot cheaper than a trip to England. Try to locate the repository holding the information you require, and that of course can be tricky.
Every county seems to have a variation on theme for their holdings.
But don't despair, there are publications that assist with the locating of records, and of course today we have the internet, if any of you are into 'surfing'. Again it is not all magical and fast with the internet, don't believe that you can do you entire family history on the web, because you can't, but it is another exceptionally good tool to use. Another good tool is the Genealogical Services Directory, a yearly publication, though you don't need to purchase each year, but do be aware that addresses change. Perhaps your group could consider purchasing the volume for your library, the 2001 edition is due in the GSV bookshop early in January. The first part of the book has articles on various aspects of genealogy, these make interesting reading, a bit like reading Ancestor.