Thanks for the info everyone.

Searching back for a few years (beyond the default 6 months) I found this thread where someone else was trying to do almost exactly the same thing a year ago !
[Link: remotecentral.com]

I was almost there, but "borrowed" brettd's more elegant parsing of the FTP passive mode response, and Voila !

Working version (not very pretty) here for anyone who wants to have a play -
[Link: rohansplace.com]

P.S.

GuerillaBuild - Thanks for the advice. Seems the official OZ RSS feeds are a bit brief, and XML is only available for some states (not Western Australia where I live).

Guy Palmer - Thanks for the info. I had not found the site before. Unfortunately little for Perth people :-(

Lyndel McGee - Thanks for the tip on where (& when) to search.

Also thanks to Jon Welfringer for fixing TCP/IP from the simulator - saves many hours!