here is the star alliance code: 811b-447a-91cc-035c356b. it goes through singapore to go to tokyo, but as far as i understand that is an acceptable outcome, tokyo is "west" of melbourne anyway, just singapore takes it further west.
it doesn't come up with an error using this route on the website, the ticket comes out to be $16,000. then i went to SIA + UA websites to find all the business saver tickets on each segment, which showed available.
lastly there was one sector which was economy only, i was fine with that as it was a short EU connection, but the SIA rep said all legs must be business saver or it won't work. i wasn't aware of this requirement and makes EU connections even harder, all resources i read didn't note this and still not sure if it's true.