In a similar situation myself, but managed to get the EASA licence issued last year.
Two problems that you may encounter.
1) There is no CAA approved doctor in Australia to do your medical. I ended up having to go to New Zealand
2) My JAR ATPL which I was converting to a EASA ATPL only showed that I had English Language Proficiency, this gets upgraded to ELP6 at your next OPC. I didn't do another OPC, and ended up flying overseas. Getting ELP6 for the issuance of your licence could be problematical
Good luck