Cheap flights to OZ from mainland europe?

Hi

The wife is a Melbourne girl and she has not been able to get back home for over 5 years now due to various reasons, but I was thinking of surprising her as a present and getting her a flight back for a few weeks. Now flights do seem to be expensive but it will not be till august and I also have the option of sending her from mainland europe as we live in Italy. Somebody told me years ago there were great deals from Frankfurt but having checked all the ebookers etc, that does not seem to be the case at all. For the record the average return flight I am finding is about 1250 euro. I know flights are dear at the moment but I had budgeted about 800. Is that even realistic? We paid 1600 for the 2 of us in 2006 so I do not know if this is just the new price differential.

Any and all help greatly appreciated