My Jan 9 aurora chase was also a failure. I first started in Albany, then the clouded formed just on sunset. Fluffy cloud. That's generally bad news in Albany, so I packed up and headed north into the Stirling ranges. After driving for awhile I found a vantage point with a southerly slot through the mountains and waited. Nothing. Turns out the predictions were late and the aurora arrived just after twilight
However! Jan 7 was another chasing night. An M4 flare had erupted from AR1944 3 days earlier and a CME glancing blow was predicted for sometime on the 7th. This time I setup in a dune field near Bremer Bay and waited. The CME hit the ACE satellite just before midnight and aurora started showing in my timelapse around 2 am. 2 small bursts before start of astro twilight. The Kp level only got to 3, so I was quite surprised to see aurora at 34.5 S.
First shot is just before moonset, while the 2nd around 2 am.
14 mm, iso 6400, f/2.8, 20 sec