BR-HD50 NTSC on a HD101 PAL
 

I'm looking to purchase a BR-HD50 deck but they're $2,000 dearer in Australia. Are there going to be any major issues if I use an NTSC BR-HD50 deck with footage shot on a PAL HD101?

There's no such thing as an NTSC or a PAL version of this deck, as far as I can tell. The deck has a 50/60 setting in a menu, with an indicator light on the front panel to confirm.

*edit*
I stand (kinda) corrected (see Glen's post below).

There are two versions of the deck - HD50U and HD50E. I talked to a techie at JVC and he told me the difference is when you use the deck for mini-dv. The 50E is PAL, the 50U NTSC. If you shoot 576/50P video, it won't play back on the US version of the deck, and vice-verse. I think HDV works in either deck, or something like that. Anyway, he told me I needed the 50U version to playback DV video in the US.
Externally, the only way you can tell the difference between the decks is the model number written on the bottom surface.

Here's a link to the specs for the 50E version. Note it doesn't list 480 as a record/playback option:
http://www.jvcpro.co.uk/item/index_html?item=BR-HD50E

Postscript: From what I can understand from JVC US' website, it looks like the 50U version will record/playback PAL video. Strange - the techie told me it wouldn't work with PAL. I would suggest a call to JVC for clarification before you spend your money on a deck.