If you have residency in Australia and get your licences sorted I would think Virgin would look at you for the ATR fleet.
I wouldn't go into the interview with the view that the job is a given, but if you approach it the right way you should be ok assuming your human (that isn't a given unfortunately having seen how some applicants behave).
Don't know about QantasLink or other operators.
If you get into the ATR operation then you can, at the appropriate time, move to long haul, NZ, short haul whatever takes your fancy and is inline with your seniority.
I suspect the progression would be ATR, SO on 777, then right hand seat on the 737 in NZ or Australia. From there you can move to the 330 or tripler as a FO.
Commands would easily I suspect be at least 15 years off.
To answer your particular questions, the ATR has 10 days off a month as far as I am aware, don't do a whole lot of overnights. More than likely you would end up in Canberra, at least initially (but that is just a guess on my part).
Once on the 737 expect to spend more time away but you do have the option for bidding for day trips, though success with the bidding system is somewhat random.
Best lifestyle I suspect is on the widebodies, the 330 starts Abu Dhabi at some point and there is discussion around Hong Kong, Singapore and Beijing, but nothing concrete there. The 777 does lax.
The 737 does plenty in oz and up to Bali, also the pacific islands, plenty of variety though the 737 guys and gals are working hard at the moment.