Some things to note about any possible tour to Australia:

Richie mentioned 10 stadium shows in Japan/Australia. Currently there are 6 dates listed for Japan, so maybe the extra ones are for here, as a basic east coast tour of Oz is common among bands that come here, which would be about 3 or 4 shows (Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, maybe Adelaide) and would normally take around 10 days to complete.

There are 2 decent 'windows' for the possible Australian dates: The final US date of the first leg is March 11th and the Japan shows do not begin until April 8th, which leaves close to 4 weeks for something in there. The final Japan show is on April 18th and the European tour doesn't begin until May 13th, which is only a 3 week gap in dates, so I would imagine that if it's going to happen, it'd be before the Japan tour.

Someone mentioned a 'slip of the tongue' from Richie regarding Australia. There was talk some time ago about an interview he did on Brisbane radio and what he said then fits in with what he said on the above interview, as well as mentioning the 10 stadium shows for this region, as I also mentioned earlier. Those 2 things make it seem a little more than just a slip...well, I'm hoping.

A couple of things that are a bit confusing however, are the fact that no dates have been mentioned at all to anyone, anywhere. Even if the tour was in the later of the 2 possible 'windows', that's only 3 months away, and the earlier one is barely 2!! You would think that normally something official would have been said by now if there were to be a tour. Also, in another interview that Jon & Richie did back in September on Oz tv, they didn't say that they definitely weren't coming, but Jon indicated that there wasn't anything about Australia in the tour plans at that stage. Then the interviewer presented them with a petition with thousands of Australians' signatures, asking them to come....if anything, it was non-commital rather than a straight up 'no'. That was a few months ago though, maybe things have changed by then.

Maybe.

PS: Cheers for that other link Kev, it worked fine that time.