If these look different to you perhaps you're not looking at the same thing I am. The Chilean picture spans about 3 hours of Right Ascension while the other spans only 1. For example, in the Chilean one the dark blotch just to the right of center is called "the coal sack", while in the Australian picture you can see only a part of "the coal sack".
I was right in the middle of modifying my post when you wrote that, but you're right. The Southern Cross can be seen from both South America and Australia.
However, it is my contention that The Southern Cross (also known as the Southern Crux) is really just one of the constellations on the outer edge of the Northern gear which rotates over South America, Africa and Australia.
The Southern Cross can be seen from latitudes as high as Hawaii, which means that the crux cannot be as close to the southern celestial center as your star maps indicate. Hawaii is facing in an entirely different northern direction in the RE model.
Here's the Southern Cross as seen from the Hawaiian island Mauna Loa: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020425.html
quite glad this thread above most others is maintaining civility
as far as the southern cross being on a gear, it rotates about a point only a few degrees from it's center, while the center of rotation in the gear model is thousands of miles away, over the north pole, in fact as illustrated in any simply reproducible long exposure night shot of the southern sky, it ALL rotates about the apparent south pole.
and yes, indeed the crux is visible from points in the northern hemisphere, but not all year round, as the planet appears to rotate on a tilted axis. also, the real center of the southern sky is between the pointers and the crux, it's not the crux itself.
to your other post, i claimed no detailed astronomy, simply gazing out the window of the plane, listening to my walkman to pass the time, as hundreds of travelers do each day. i always try to spot the southern cross in the night sky, reminds me of home when i'm abroad.