"But the pay and conditions are about what you'd expect for an entry level helpdesk job." Yep.
That may have been acceptable when there were high paying jobs down the road, the jobs that are now evaporating. But 35k is the absolute bottom for a graduate job with the average 55k and up as a start point. The graduate would also have a HECS debt of around 15k as opposed to 80-140k for a CPL with all the fruit. Yes I am biasing towards tertiary qualified comparisons but that is the type of person aviation use to attract and will now struggle to.
There will always be people for whom 60-85k with rolling shift work sounds like a good deal. The question is whether the talent pool will be deep enough to avoid problems. I think that it will take 10 years or more for the full affects of the changing market to be visible. Just look at the US experience.