But no matter, now you're talking renewals, not training, they are not the same thing. For training, you don't need the aid. It can be simulated with appropriate use of GNSS.
Explain to me how you simulate an NDB approach with GNSS?? VOR kind of can, but in both cases the needles do not act in the same way. Part of ground based training is experiencing and understanding effects like scalloping and the vagaries of the ADF needle.
Anyway, last I checked, Mangalore has a VOR approach available and forms part of the BNN, according to OzRunways it is 26mins from Moorabbin.
You're not from Melbourne are you? Getting to Mangalore requires an IFR plan and transiting the Melbourne CTA the preferred route for which is overhead Tullamarine. The controllers used to happily do this, but I find that now its common to be put into a hold or vectored all over the place. Its difficult / circuitous to get to Mangalore IFR otherwise. To get there VFR you need to fly the light aircraft lane.
And if you'd ever flown the aids at Mangalore, you'd know that the combination of training aircraft there and the funneling effect of VFR traffic flying to the Melboune basin via Mangalore and the Kilmore Gap makes it a dangerous aid to use for currency / training.
Latrobe Valley is the only real aid that is available. Its the only GNSS approach that you can effectively use. But, frankly it has its own difficulties. Its on the flight path for the oil rig choppers, Latrobe valley itself is busy and its getting the bulk of GNSS / ADF / VOR training now. And it adds about 40 minutes flying time to each and every training / currency flight.
Expecting to do the Moorabbin GNSS approach on a nice VFR afternoon like last Sunday and fit with the VFR traffic is either arrogant or foolish. The best you can really do is break at 3nm which is worth pretty much nothing for training or practice. Remember, this is currently the second busiest airport in Australia behind Sydney International.
AsA made undertakings to the Victorian RAPAC that a training procedure would be developed for the Philip Island aid. Based on the cost comparison I can find in the UK, it should cost less than AUD$1,000 per annum to maintain the NDB. Probably the same for the VOR if it is not flight tested (which the FAA have now stopped for many aids).
Why would AsA not do what it promised? Its been told to me that the person who made that undertaking did not have the authority to make it. But that's a weasel answer.