Earliest route HKG to ADL with time constraints

[Chatswood]

I've booked my hotels and have decided to visit Macau whilst there as well (as I as in HK earlier this year) - so will be sleeping in both Macau and HK. I believe that I'll need to clear security/immigration for Macau as it's separately run to HK. I think there's a way you can do this by getting on a particular bus and only clearing immigration once on that day. This means that I'll need to clear immigration when entering Macau, then clear again when I transfer over to HK.

Correct, the Macanese have their own border controls too. I don’t believe there’s anywhere where you can clear immigration just once, unless you’re going straight to HKIA from Macau.

If travelling between Macau and HK, I still think the ferry is a better deal than the bus over the HZMB because it’s still an hour each way but you get to arrive/depart from the city centres instead of having to catch a bus out on the HK side.