OZ,
That's about it. A number of friends and acquaintances have had their aircraft looked after by Dalby Aircraft Maintenance over the years, and they have always been very happy with the result.
Time and again, we see organizations that have had years of audits with nothing but minor problems, but something happens ( remember Polar and and argument that a CASA FOI was demanding something on twin training other than according to the CAAP, or Barrier) and an "aggressive" audit finds "hundreds" of things wrong.
As the principal of Polar Air has apparently said: "It took me $1.0M to find out CASA can do anything they like".
Of the many problems of Brindabella, I am told that rather extreme interpretations of the manufacturer's maintenance manual by CASA re. the Jetstreams was a factor in aircraft groundings.
Cast your minds back to the series of aircraft grounded at YSBK, (big stickers and all) over disputes about the size and shape of registrations letters, or the aircraft that had C.of As. cancelled because the owners had taken the battery home to keep them on charge - and the AWI involved "determined" that these aircraft were, consequently, not airworthy, and the "work performed" was illegal maintenance, as it did not conform tp Schedule 8, or was not performed by a LAME under a CAR 30 approval.
Think of the AWI who refused to renew a number of LAME licenses, because the applicants did not have "6 months experience in the industry in the preceding 2 years" --- because said AWI "determined" that working on Experimental aircraft, including prototype development, or Experimental Amateur Built aircraft, were not "aircraft" for the purposes of the "regulations".
I have some experience on UK, US and NZ, over many years, and have friends who have run GA businesses in those countries and Canada over many years, there are always complaints about the local regulators, but never in the same terms and with the same vehement tone as is common, even normal, in Australia.
In none of those countries do I regularly hear of the kinds of aggressive audits that are increasingly common in Australia, or hear of feelings that the "regulator" is at war with the aviation community, that the only "safe skies are empty skies".
Tootle pip!!