Actually I was just thinking about this the other day in the light of a number of posts about whether Qantas is getting benefit from the EK Alliance, etc.
Provided our government(s) (current and future) don't bend over for the rest of the world and fail to negotiate anything and give away traffic rights, this could work extremely well for Qantas and maybe finally nail the age-old problem of our geographic location. I'm talking all European flights passing through Perth and maybe one or two Asian cities but the bulk going direct. Where Europe is concerned, the only competitors likely would be the Euro airlines who seem to have little interest in Australia. The ME carriers would not be able to compete with direct services both because they must go through their hubs and also because they have no rights to fly direct from an Australian city to one in Europe direct (would need to check the agreements for that though).
Personally, I have invariably done the trip in one hit anyway. I find stopping en-route when doing this whether SIN or BKK or HKG to be a PITA because I just want to get there... so given the choice of nearly 2 hours on the ground in the middle, getting off, getting back on again I would always choose to go via PER and stay for a day and visit relatives and then fly direct for 19 hours that go through a hub.
Glad to see that QF is accelerating their deliveries - a Pilot friend said some time back when I said "only 8" that "don't worry, there will be many more once those have arrived."
I'd be betting on the 777 rather than the A350. Don't see the point in buying A350s when they essentially do the same job as the 787-9... if that was the case, better to order 787-10 for commonality or 777 for it's wider cabin.