Hi Clarry,
Yep Rho Cassiopeiae (
top marks to you for spelling the genitive correctly
) is a very interesting and pretty rare type of star that we see (within astronomical time-frames) transiting a very brief transitional/evolutionary stage.
It would be visible from the northern half of Australia (quite to very low in the north) but only when that part of the sky (around 0hrs RA) is above the horizon at night-time (approx Sept to Dec is best).
There is lots of interesting info here:
http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/rhocas.html
and here:
http://www.solstation.com/x-objects/rho-cas.htm
In my searches, I've found three different distance estimates -- they are all in excess of 7,000 ly distant and the highest is 11,650ly. It is too far away to measure directly using parallax. It is certainly one of the most distant stars visible to the naked eye and a member of that small, exclusive club of naked eye stars >2000ly distant.
As a matter of interest, AG Carinae (when it is fleetingly, occasionally visible to the naked eye -- it is a Luminous Blue Variable) is probably the most distant naked-eye star at about 20,000 ly.
Rho Cas is undoubtedly on the way to going kahblooie soon, but my money is on one of the most luminous stars in NGC 3603 -- Sher 25. Sher 25 is about 20,000 ly away and there is a substantial probability that it is somewhere in the last 20,000 years of it's life.
Best,
Les D