I'm a student at Griffith currently, and I can guarantee that you don't have to be a cadet or apply for the cadetship to get the FEE-HELP. FEE-HELP is similar to HECS, but with HECS you don’t have the 20% borrowing fee, and HECS has a interest rate whereas FEE-HELP loans are adjusted according to the CPI. The loan fee doesn’t apply for post-graduate courses, given that the name of the course is a graduate diploma of flight management, then that might mean we don’t have to worry about that, but I’m not sure on that point.
The key thing here is not to worry too much about the Griffith website; no-one truly knows what’s going on there. You do need to be enrolled in the Bachelor of Aviation to get into the Grad. Dip., but you can start the Grad. Dip. straight away. If you want to have a crack at the QF cadetship you do have to wait the 18 months before starting the flying.
If you’re interested, last year 35 people applied for the cadetship and Qantas took 6, who start their training in the next few weeks.
Hope all that was helpful.