bestfares.com is advertising U$859 rt la to melbourne for sept 30-oct 28 travel.
also for august & september travel there’s U$839 from la, $1039 from lauderdale and other locations
aug is a good time. it’s winter here but my schedule will be fairly open.
fyi, there’s also some other fares listed here (scroll to the bottom). going into sydney is cheaper (U$779) and there’s one that lets you have a stopover in NZ.