Hi Aussie,
I am doing the JAA course with WAAC. I have 11 done out of 14. No one has done them all yet.
Are they hard??...Yes. But like anything else you put in the work you will get through it. You do however need discipline and if you start arsing around you will never get them done as you only have 18 months and 6 sittings to do all 14.
WAAC use course material from CATS in the UK which is fine to get you though. Its not as flash as the Bristol stuff but does the job all the same.
If you can’t pass the Oz ATPL by self study I would say the JAA ATPL self study course would be well out of your league.
If you had difficulty with with the AUS ATPL (apart from FLT Planning), you should have a good long think about JAA distance learning study.