Talking about direct routings and Australians remind me of a case I had some 10 years back one night when a QF 747-400 attempted the world record between London and Sydney non-stop.
We were trying to get the guy the most direct route possible from KOK ( towards Iran was the furtherst we could coordinate at the time ) when I asked the pilot what would be his heading if I cleared him Sydney direct
he asked his FMS which replied 358 ! ( a 120 degr turn to the North ) and the capt could not understand why.
We thought the FMS was crazy over such long distances and left it to that. It took a few hours and looking at a globe to understand what great circle really means.... (If you are going right down under on a sphere, it does not matter which route you take....)