Getting a driver for the HP Scanjet 5470c flatbed scanner (Mac OS X)...

MacOS is generally pretty good at recognizing third-party devices, but with the best will in the world, it's not possible to build in sufficiently sophisticated drivers that it can recognize and work with everything.

Scanners are particularly difficult devices since by the nature of things, they require more than just and adequate level of support for the OS to understand they are there. As a result, the onus is on the scanner manufacturer to provide drivers. I seem to recall that HP did in fact produce a driver for this scanner, or the range of scanners from which the 5470c derived, but the support page at http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?lc=en〈=en&cc=us&product=61930&dl c=en&os=219 seems to indicate this is a CD-only product and not available for download - which I assume is the issue you've been having with trying to order the driver for delivery by mail. I don't seem to have the same issue going through the order process that you may be having - I can complete an order through the website up to the 'confirm' page, which suggests HP are still able to supply the CD, though from the look of it, perhaps only in the US.

If you still can't get their system to respond to you, why not just call them and find out whether this is available in Australia? If not, you may be able to obtain a copy via eBay or a contact in the US.