Could Virgin Australia launch flights from other Australian ports into Hong Kong? Not Sydney obviously as that would remain Virgin Atlantic, but with the Virgin Atlantic codeshare you could have a one stop, "all-Virgin" service to the UK. A nice way to link the brands without necessarily taking traffic from each other (though Cathay would probably have something to say about it).
Virgin Australia to Abu Dhabi, Etihad from there to Europe, etc. (with 77W)
Virgin Australia to Hong Kong, Virgin Atlantic from there to the UK. (with A333)
I guess it would seem unlikely unless Cathay agrees to play ball, but if they could get CX on board, that's a nice ready made Asian network to play with too.