I'm also Australian and play on Ridill too just fine (it was my server in 1.0 when all we had was JP servers), and I have no real problems with latency now - most of my lag issues usually stem from either a slow internet connection (lets face it, Australia's internet infrastructure is cringeworthy) or a slow computer which can't handle a large amount of characters on screen at once.

Really, and this is what most people find hard to understand, is that the game is simply being overloaded with connections as it is just too popular. No network can handle an infinite amount of people connecting at once, there has to be a limit. And unfortunately FFXIV hit that limit. It's unfortunate, but it's life I guess.