Awqward, if you really are an Aussie you would know once you are west of the Blue Mountains there isn't too much to navigate by at night or even to help with any sense of an horizon on a moonless night. Launching off to/from places in the bush really is taking off into a wall of black. Unlike the UK or most of the USA where cities and towns are everywhere and at night stand out for many miles. It would be hard to get disorientated and fly into the ground with so much lighting around.Needless to say the training therefore would need be more here. The 500ft rule you should know is above ground not structures. The German was following the highway in the desert between Alice and Tennant Creek on memory. He hit the only thing there was to hit for hundreds of Km's a powerline strung across the road.
You sound more to me like a disgruntled immigrant to Australia that either got homesick or couldn't make a go of it,went home and now it's all Australia's fault.