Most appreciated PoppaJo! Thankyou so much!
QANTAS and Virgin aren't really my targets. I actually live in Thailand right now as my wife is Thai. The ideal goal would be for me to end up with an airline over here and suspected it would take at least a 5-10 year stint in Australia to get to that point. In the meantime to be honest I'm not really thrilled about the idea of instructing although would consider it if it was a means to an end (probably doesn't make a great instructor though).
Do you know (or others reading) aside from instructing are there alternatives?
e.g. tourism, mining fifo, fishing, agriculture, island transport.
I used to fly to the Darwin to Tiwi Islands and Arnhem Land a lot for work in the communities. I wonder if the smaller operators like this are an option for the early years? I suspect many of these positions aren't full time though. If so, not a big problem as long as I can reach the 1500hr/ATPL within a reasonable time frame I'm cool with it.
Again, really appreciate you taking the time to help me out!