Update
Six months on from receiving assurances from QF that one of the cities I fly from / to regularly would be added to the online award booking engine and guess what... it still hasn't.
Again I posed the question, if there isn't any means to book online (ie it has to be by phone) how can it to be equitable to charge the assisted award booking fee.
And this is where there was a really pleasant surprise...
By bringing it to the attention of Jenny Chamberlain, QF have agreed to both add the destination to the online booking engine (which, I'm told, will take about a month) and to waive the assisted award booking fee for any award reservations to / from this city in the meantime.
What a result and top marks to QF ^ ^ ^ for acting on FF customer feedback.