I believe that the 5 weeks has been extended to 6 with weekends off. You train in either MEL or BNE depending on where you nominate to work.
Currently there are groups training in MEL and BNE and I have heard that there will be at least 1 group a month in MEL till the end of the year, not sure about BNE.
VB need a lot of crew to fill up the spots on EMB's if CC get that gig as well as replacing the churn of CC who dont realise how hard this job can be on your family and friends. Currently MEL crew averaging close to 10 overnights a month. I personally have gone from an average of 7 to at least 10 every month. My hours have also increased from around 100 to 120 per month, rostered. Available days are on top of that.
I wish you all well but this job has definitely gotten harder in the last 12 months.