CDs used to be very expensive in Australia. In the 90s/ early 2000s there was an embargo on cheap imports (the same album by the same artist, but made in another country, and sold for a much lower price). The standard price for most music CDs was $30 AUD for single CD album, and $50 for a double CD (which would be double that in today's dollars- $60 and $100 respectively). Those were the prices, for years and years. The CDs were often made in Australia, though. The record companies/ record stores knew they could get away with setting those prices, because there was an embargo, and nobody bought them online back then. Only the real bargain-basement, or unpopular music CDs would be priced less than that.
The embargo has since been lifted, probably because of pressure from sales over the internet.
So, especially in those days, there was a feeling that you weren't really getting what you paid for- paying so much for a bunch of 1s and 0s on a plastic disc, and a small printed insert/booklet. But most people, including the shops that sold them, saw them as being better quality sound than vinyl records, which you could buy second-hand. It wasn't like now, where stores sell brand new, or audophile vinyl records, or you can buy vinyl online.
