Never fly in rain unless you know exactly where the ridges are.
As for this "continued flight into below VMC" stuff, people including the accident investigators don't know that that is not what happens. What happens is you are marginal VMC or maybe happily trundling along 1000 feet above the ground and 1000 feet below the base and ten miles vis, suddenly it comes down on you and there you are, down on the deck in rain. You didn't fly into it at all, it came and got you.
Don't tell the accident investigators they will have to re-write thousands of accident reports.
As has been mentioned, there are cheap and excellent and reliable efis sets out there which show you the obstacles and terrain. They are many orders of magnitude better than the classic instruments. However they are uncertified and thus don't get into certified aircraft, which leaves the drivers with fifty year old panels. Good old following-the-rest-of-the-world Casa won't let you use those cheap and excellent and reliable little efis, despite their obvious superiority. I haven't asked them why.
Amberely airspace - it is brave pilot asks Australian controllers for clearance through controlled airspace. They are just sitting there with there with Violations pad on desk and pens poised. Wasn't there a pilot killed in NSW a while back, denied clearance into CTA, hit a ridge going around it?