As it turns out, there isn't any used alternators left in QLD.
I had a look at a couple of alternative options but they were too big or too much hassle to make them fit.
Craig has been helping me look at anything that could be wrong with the alternator. we did as much testing as we could without a working alternator but found nothing.
I bought a generic one off ebay with a 12 month warranty. I've also bought some heat shielding for the exhaust manifold (which the regulator is right next to)
After talking to a few people, I'm highly suspicious of heat soak after shut down into the alternator. Whilst there has been other swaps in track cars and the likes, I think part of the difference could be the environmental heat combined with stop-start traffic and limited airflow.
A key point that I have noticed with both failures was that they only died after I had stopped the car, turned it off and back on again.
Hopefully I can get to the bottom of this expensive excercise