Remember that you are competing for awards with all the millions of AA FF members who are saving up for that dream trip to Australia in F, and there are only 1 or 2 F award seats per day on your route MEL-LAX. Hence the prioritization based on status, which reflects how much business you do with QF as an airline. You do have an Aadvantage over non-QFF award seekers in being able to book 355 days ahead, while they can only book 330 days ahead. So you really need to accumulate the needed points within the next 7 months to have any chance at all for travel 18 months out.