Thanks for that. I sense the pain of that $15k 'investment' rightly lingers ... agree with you 100% about Oz attitude to inbound visitors ... still very 1950's and difficult not to compare/contrast with the reverse situation - as an Oz citizen i can show up on arrival in Thailand with a toothbrush and swan around indefinitely.
I have a slim hope the huge Oz backlog in visa processing, new government here and a collapsed Oz inbound tourist industry may produce another fluked success for me.
Hopefully, DFAT are automating a lot of their processing these days. As an ex-IT guy, i have faith their systems misfire frequently and may yet spit out a 'Computer says 'Yes'' result.