Yes, for me also, photos have gotten a bit slower than other items.

I've always had my status bar open, the one next to last on the bottom of the page that tells you if you are going where you expect to go.  I watch that and don't expect to be able to move around until everything has loaded, unlike for all other sites.

& for a few months now I've been reading while signed out.  It makes this site noticeably faster, but still a good 30 seconds longer to load than any other site.  (& I fun through the gamut of computer clean up stuff weekly).

Still the status bar says done, having gone through at least 5 different sites to connect, & pictures, attached or hosted online elsewhere don't come up.  For the past several days I've tried to hang on another 10 seconds at least before I give up.  Or I go to some other thread and come back later, correctly figuring that maybe 1/2 of the photos are in cache.  When I come back, photos load faster.  But still I've allowed double time to have them load at all.

So, all, it's not just servers in Oz.

Derek I doubt it is your end, I think it is our local service some how.

For what its worth they seem to have been a tad slow here to lately.....
having said that ......they still come through 3 times faster than they would have 5 years ago