I'm in sydney, specifically the "insert/outer west". Takes 20 minutes to the city lol.
I have tried searching for recycling plants but came up pretty dry before
I just googled "sydney aus e-waste recycling" and found a number of options that may be worth contacting.
It does look like official/governmental operations will not let you take anything out once it has been recycled, but any third party provider might be willing to bend the rules.
You can also try posting wanted ads on local free classifieds pages (Craigslist, Kijiji or similar as appropriate to your area) and people may see the post before they recycle things to begin with.
Local school board IT departments may also have things stashed away, and the same goes for manufacturing plants. I've acquired a few older items of interest that came from a local tool and die shop. Specialized manufacturing equipment usually depends on special software which might only be suppored on certain older platforms, so you tend to see obsolete hardware in use in those settings. That's a possible opportunity to intercept it before it gets recycled, after they're done with it.