Out of interest….
Can those overseas operators reading this thread advise the alternate that their airline would usually plan, based on a VMC forecast, for Perth? Would they carry any advisory traffic holding fuel on top of that?
I ask this as I had a discussion with a friend many years ago about his airline's fuel policy/requirements for various destinations. He advised that if operating from (say) Singapore to Melbourne, they would have Avalon as a planned alternate and little else above the statutory requirements. He also mentioned that they were strongly discouraged from adding any more than planned fuel, to the point that he had F/Os 'reporting' him for adding what he believed was carefully considered additional fuel. We agreed that feeling free to add our own reasonable additional fuel - without pressure from the flight ops department - was a better place to be than having a pre-planned amount and a management that discouraged a crew from making decisions based on experience and practical knowledge.