Bog, let's say things had been slightly different. When the pilot asked at the briefing office if he could flight plan over Willy he was told. " yes. Go ahead. That's clearly the safest route for a night VMC flight in these weather conditions"
As he tracked over Taree he was told to call Willy approach as they had a flight strip and new he was coming .A clearance was issued without requiring holding OCTA.
The aircraft remained in VMC. Out of cloud and icing and arrived safely at Bankstown.
I don't say the archaic RAAF regulations are solely to blame for the deaths- just that these people may not have died if a plan over Williamtown was allowed.
And it's no different today. Let's remove that planning restriction and allow pilots to plan on the safest route coastal southbound .