Yup, MEL dom J was created within the footprint of the QC back when J lounges were introduced. It was basically in the south west corner of the area, extending a bit (into a kind of L shape) where the now QC is. And yup, one entered the QC more or less where the current J lounge entry is and entered the J lounge about mid way through the space (and once through the door to J there was a service desk/staff to check eligibility to enter and all that, then one went into the J lounge area. IIRC to the left after entering was the buiffet area and bar tucked in back and to the left again of the buffet, with main seating area across to the right of the entry along the windows and central area, plus more seating across from the buffet and over from the bar.. Of course it was much smaller than the current J footprint.
Hands up all who remember peak time (eg >5pm Fridays) crush in there - both the bar traffic and packed to the gills....
In MEL (as like SYD, but SYD had much bigger area) QF were stymied by the available space in the leased(not owned) terminal so options were limited, which is why they set it up that way (IIRC), In SYD the huge QC was basically split in half with the CL in the middle.
in CBR with the entire terminal revamp there was the ability to basically start from scratch, so that lounge area is much better with separate lounges from inception.
) menu and food.
