Regarding the supposed interview dates of late January (as I was told when they called me): I understand that it is a recruiting company and not Virgin Australia that is handling applications and interviews. If that's so, let's hope someone at Virgin have given them the clue that many of their potential applicants will require (sometimes quite) a bit of lead time to be able to make themselves available on a certain day or days since little things like a roster can intrude.
If they are going to be interviewing in late January, I'd say they've already lost quite a few potential applicants who'd find it very difficult to make themselves available at such short notice - particularly long haul pilots, who can be away on a trip for more than a week.
Even if the interviews are to be in February, many if not most will already be locked into their February roster.