The Pilots may come FROM the ranks of the Longhaul EBA but won't fly the freighter ON the Longhaul EBA.
If past form is anything to go by, the pilots MAY be selected from the Mainline ranks, however if D.R can't pick & choose who he wants to fly his freighter. He will walk away from using mainline guys. Just like last time with the 767 freighter.
The difference this time is they need a lot more pilots for this operation compared to the 767f operation where it's a 2 man tech crew and no stopover. My source says it is very likely that it will be Efa pilots, but they still have using qf mainline pilots under the long haul eBa on the table still.
SMOC
It is correct that they do go via china to lax, but thats 5 days a week. From memory they do one Australia to Hong Kong flight per week, one Australia to shanghai flight per week. At this stage they intend on using the 744erf to do Sydney to lax 4 times a week.