Joe! Don't go away, stay around and let's hear a lot more from you. I can only agree - I discovered IIS late last year and am loving it here.
Yep, Mike S has taken the occasional good little photo
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11hr is nothing. Aussies regularly do 20 hr plus in two legs from the SE coast to Europe! Try it. We'll have the welcome mat out for you.
Eric
ps. Australia has innumerable dark sky locations - a world light pollution map shows this, especially relative to North America and Europe!