Which SLR camera/s should I look at buying?

So, I'm looking at saving up and purchasing my first (decent) SLR camera! I've previously had a 2 $100 point-and-shoots and my parents' second-hand Fujifilm S5800 (which is getting old and runs out of battery in a matter of minutes). I'm pretty happy with majority of photos my current Pentax Optio RZ18 takes, though I would like to be able to adjust settings (i.e.aperture, ISO etc.)
Ok, so firstly, I'm unsure of whether to go with Nikon or Canon (though I think I'm siding towards Canon). I'm only really a beginner, so I don't need a large, heavy, professional camera quite yet. I'd prefer a light(ish) camera and around AU$1000 (give or take).
Most photos I take are using the macro feature on my camera, so that is a preferred ability!

See some of my photos with current Pentax Optio RZ18 at

If you are favoring Canon, then you are ready to look at the T4i. With the 18-55 lens, it's close to your budget.

For macro, you will need an actual macro lens. That would be in addition to the kit lens, so you would need to save another $400-500 for that.

If you can't spend that much money, I'm blown away by the image quality of the Canon Powershot S100.It does have a built in macro function and it has the same operating modes as the T4i, including a very easily accessible manual mode.

The only drawback is that the lens doesn't have that much range in optical zoom, going only to an equivalent of 121mm. It has a digital zoom that goes to 484mm, though.

Since you are thinking of a larger camera, you might look at the Nikon P7700.It has a greater zoom range than the S100 and the lens is faster when zoomed. I would have bought this camera, but I wanted one that would fit into a shirt pocket easily. It costs more, but is still only about half what you have budgeted for.

Sounds like your ready for a DSLR, Canon and Nikon are the the most popular systems and the systems with the widest range of accessories, but they are also the most expensive systems by far.

Of the other manufacturers Olympus, Pentax, Sony etc. Pentax offers the most function for your money, backwards compatible with a huge range of K mount lenses priced in the sub $100 range, all will be image stabilised as it's built into the camera, all will expose correctly and work as originally designed, all have superb image quality, buy any in the the Pentax 'A' range and the only thing you will miss is the auto focus.

Build quality is second to none (better even than the most expensive Canikons) even at entry level, they will have all the functions including multiframe (multiple exposures in one frame), built in intervalometer (for recording time lapse), Tav mode where you set the aperture and shutter speed and the camera alters the ISO and others. Compatable add ons such as flashguns are cheaper than there Canikon equivalent and not just by a little.

You can't tell which camera took an image except by reading the Exif data, lenses matter more, the range of Pentax primes are amongst the best there are (though they are not cheap).

For macro you would need a Macro lens no matter which system you buy into.

I do own Canon (1D and 5D) and Nikon (D3s, D7000) cameras, but the one I reach for first is always my Pentax K5, the ergonomics are just so simple and intuitive and it's a smaller, lighter system than the full frame Canikons. The images it turns out are at least as good, often better with a wider dynamic range and less noise than the full frame Canikons surprisingly for cameras that cost 5 times less than the full frame Canikons, even when the lighting is not good.