long uni course or short course??

There's no real difference... well, actually there is. Short courses are designed to introduce you to skills or develop/build old ones. They're very good to do if you're new to acting, and it does help you by getting your feet wet. Additionally, it's a good way to meet others in the same boat. Having said that, a longer course offers much more: usually better chances at gaining employment, industry contacts and work experience placements, practical and theoretical training not offered in short courses, etc. Taking into account that you say you don't have any training (does this mean you've never done acting, or just that you don't have formal training?), I'm going to suggest that you start with short courses. The advantage of this is that you don't dive headlong into a longer course that you may not end up liking. Additionally, longer courses can and do take up most of your time, which makes it hard to work and/or participate in extra-curricular stuff. There's plenty of places to go in Melbourne for either option. (By the way, it helps if you add your location on your post: I checked your profile) Mermaid shadow puppet now on sale at Puppets in Melbourne