Blimey Synchrodyne, I thought you were going to say "so I shall be brief"
but you have indeed taken a different approach and I found your antipodean overview very interesting indeed, especially the comments about transfer quality [Granada TV was my Region at the time-they were very innovative]
. It will be nice to hear what the OP has to say from his part of the world, what he was after in the first place and how the Redifussion system came into being in his location?
Re Brigham's comment [at p40*] I've mentioned elsewhere, the BBC [1966?] viewer trial, reported in Wireless World, when the Beeb compared 405/625 images for the government. They said that 625 lines came out better. I didn't read it then but even I can see it's inaccurate. Most audience members reported little difference but the experts said otherwise. There may well have been political forces at work though, in terms of a possible European 625 line market.
Dave.