My gut feel is that the Troopies sold in Australia will exceed the overall requirements for safety and emissions, but will fail in other areas, it will be something niggling and expensive like tyres. The best thing I can advise is that you have a look at www.dotars.gov.au who control the design rules (ADRs) for new vehicles imported into Australia. They have a checklist for private import vehicles (email me and I can send you a copy its large so hope you have broadband) which you should be able to check off against the UK construction and use regs (do they still exist). Australia has had side intrusion protection, seat belts, etc since the late 80s.

There are RoRo services available ex all major ports, containers in my opinion are an extra hassle and often an extra cost by the time its loaded. Advantage is that you can stuff the container with other spares.

Just be aware that a lot of Troopies lead a hard life - mine work is common in my part of Queensland and coal dust rots out a Troopy very quickly. Beach driving is also fairly common - and if you thought road salting is hard on a vehicle just drive down a beach for 80kms and see how much bare metal appears.

The RACQ (equivalent of the AA/RAC) do pre purchase inspections and its a good way of knowing what you are buying.

Exporting a vehicle is dead easy - you put it on a boat.