From the horses mouth, there's apparently 3 main factors that determine your start date "preference".
- How you preformed on the interview day (recomended/highly recommended)
- Notice period
- Company currently employed with (Eg, they are not going to take 9 people from Ambulance Victoria in one hit again)
I believe the average experience level currently is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3k TT, and some experience with multi crew or at least command on a B200 or like.
But who knows if that's even true, it's only what they have passed on, that whole part of the company is like a black-hole with decision making.