SAPL prefer pilots to have about 500 multi to go on the BN2B. They will waver it if they want to. The 1500 total, however, is a requirement for customs and they will not relent on it. They have also taken pilots with less than 3 renewals, but I think they had heaps of night flying instead.
The pilots they have employed in the past few years have had GA charter and/or instructing experience (for entry on the BN2B). You are usually sent to HID first ( sometimes you can get BRM, DN or CNS if no one from HID wants to go to the other base on offer for some reason. Usually getting off the rock depends on turnover.) The turnover has been good for the last year.
There was a comment above above employing locals. I haven't seen that happen in the past couple of years. They don't take into account your location at all when choosing applicants.
The visual flying is awesome - along the coast and around islands- very scenic and beautiful. The electonic flying is very procedural and LONG, but u get to go to cool places.
In my opinion, its more fun, and way less stressful than charter flying. They definitely treat their pilots very well compared to charter companies.