Sorry SFB. I'm not that close at all, thats why I had to come in here to see if any other pruners had some news. I didn't mean to sound mysterious in my original post. It's just that SOME (certainly not all) oz pruners seem to take a huge delight in piling s**t on other pruners or the various oz operators whenever there is a bit of bad news, and I didn't want to start a slanging match.
The company that I know to have missed out have actually made an announcement in their company newsletter so it's not a secret. I will say that it is one of those you mentioned though. As for the short list of tenderers - there aren't that many operators in Australia who are in that market and big enough to take on the contract. I'd think your list would just about sum it up.
Cheers
ss