Re: QANTAS minimum hours.
Recruitment is rumoured to be pretty solid this year.
As far the 500 hours PIC goes, I believe it is little more than a box ticking exercise along the same lines as HSC Maths & Physics.
If you don't have it, application rejected, if you do, then proceed to next hoop. Manage to navigate through enough hoops - welcome to Stage 1, then it is just more hoops from there.