Qantas need their heads read. Darwin makes a lot more sense, is shorter, and is "mostly" on the path from MEL, SYD and BNE
Don't mean to cause offence but they are also trying to market the route as a destination. Darwin is far from a destination. Try living there let alone holidaying there, complete hole.
Poor domestic feed, ordinary destination, why bother when you can do Perth anyway and access premium domestic services not to mention x20 the population of Darwin.