i18n issue in GNOME Classic re. modifying date format of Clock Applet

[Alexis <flexibeast@gmail.com>]

Hi all,

Context: Wheezy x86_64 fresh install, plus all available updates, 
plus systemd-sysv from wheezy-backports.
Is it possible to change the date format used by the GNOME Classic 
Clock Applet? It seems nothing i do will get it change from the US 
month-before-day format.
In GNOME System Settings -> Region and Language, the 'Formats' tab 
correctly shows the "Region" set to 'Australia', and correctly 
displays dates formatted in the standard date component order used 
here in Australia:
   Tuesday 17 March 2015
   17 March 2015
   17 Mar 2015
   17/03/15

Using `dconf Editor`, i found that the value of the 'region' key 
of org.gnome.system.locale was empty, but setting it to 
"en_AU.utf8", logging out of the desktop, then logging back in 
again, also made no difference to the date component ordering in 
the applet.
i can confirm that right-clicking on the Clock Applet, selecting 
"Preferences", then un-checking/re-checking items like 'Show the 
date' /do/ actually affect the applet.
localectl(1) reports:

  System Locale: LANG=en_GB.utf8 
                 LC_NUMERIC=en_AU.utf8 LC_TIME=en_AU.utf8 
                 LC_MONETARY=en_AU.utf8 LC_MEASUREMENT=en_AU.utf8 

Since this is basic internationalisation functionality, i assume 
that i'm probably missing some setting. i have no problem 
modifying a strftime(3)-format string somewhere if necessary.
Any suggestions, please?


Alexis.