I spoke too soon. This morning went to go for a drive and the car started fine. Pulled out from the curb and thought "hmm, maybe it's just a little off because it's cold ..." then tried to climb a nearby (small) hill. No. Not happening. Boost gauge is showing vacuum (and I know it's calibrated correctly - it worked fine yesterday). While waiting in town, I looked at the turbo actuator - it wsa moving up and down at idle just like you'd expect. Okay, so boost control solenoid is ok, vac lines are ok, actuator is ok, vanes are moving.
When I returned home after the slow (but vital) drive, I popped the bonnet and pulled the hose from the turbocharger inlet and tried to turn the impeller. Nope. Not budging. My $770 Forefront turbocharger is dead after 70,000km. Yes, I tow, but I am quite aware of the correct procedure to shut the engine down even after a long haul and employ a (not quite legal) turbo timer to assist.
So I'm putting my original turbocharger back in - and I'm buying a replacement (new) turbocharger for $356 delivered. Yes, that's correct.
Actually, I'm not putting it back in. I'm basically one-handed these days, so I save me bickies and pay for a mechanic. And I'll pay him again when my new one arrives.
When I get this one pulled out I'm going to strip it down and examine what caused the failure. I'm pretty annoyed that it's blown, but I'm very thankful that it went this morning and not yesterday while I was still west of Cobar NSW!