The pursuit and the absence of the 9th Australian Division

Yes, the Australian government had requested that the 9th Australian Division be returned to Australia. That request had been kept secret. Early on 6 November 1942, the division headquarters was moved to the position near El Alamein. The fighting units were moved to an area "between Sidi Abd Al Rahman and Tel el Eisa." The first job was to bury the dead and to clear away any remaining mines. That night a rainstorm filled lowspots with water and the wind blew down tents. The men were in good spirits bespite the storm, because they were happy to be removed from the battle. The rest of the week was spent salvaging equipment found in the former battlefield.
After General Morshead met with General Leese on 6 November, he returned and called a meeting. He informed his commanders that as of 9 November, they would need to be ready to move to Mersa Matruh "and possibly to Tobruk". In fact, nothing happened. They were first warned about the need to move to Sidi Haneish, but things changed as they were no longer in XXX Corps. With the division out of any current operations, General Morshead immediately started thinking about restarting training.  The local high command was thinking about sending the 9th Australian Division back to Syria. After meeting with General Alexander, he agreed that they division could "return to Palestine" and that they could consider giving men leave. This is based on the account in Vol.III of the Australian Official History.