Interesting about the hecs being repaid as my DH got a hell of a lot of tax back in his first full year of work, but paid hecs and did not *need* to, but that remained paid...
that is why i said about the hecs not being refunded, could be my mistake!
When I started work, I earnt enough to pay back HECS each fortnight. But as I only worked March-June that year, I got a huge tax refund which included what I'd paid towards HECS. It didn't state that anywhere on the refund, but there was no reduction showing on my HECS statement the following year.