Contract delay question

Hi guys,
Im after some much needed advice.  I bought my first house a fortnight ago, signed all the contracts and had a 35 day settlement.  The contract was fine we added special conditions of pest, building, pool, electrical and air con inspections.  All the conditions were accepted by the seller and I signed the contract.  The seller is in NSW and they are using there solicitor who is using a solicitor here in mount isa.  The contract was signed by the seller and and everything was going fine, until it was discovered they never signed the special conditions.  Now apparently the seller and there NSW solicitor have gone on holidays overseas and their mount isa solicitor cannot get a hold of them at all.

My solicitor has advised them and myself that the contract is not actually binding until the special conditions are signed, thus pushing out the settlement date from when they sign them.  They are not due back in Oz until next week apparently and this has been going on for 2 weeks now.  So I had all the inspections done as I was under the impression the contract was signed and fine, the valuations were done and came back fine also. But the finance agent I am using said they cannot submit my FHOG application until they have a cited fully signed contract.  So basically the whole thing has hit a stand still for 3 weeks almost just because the seller's solicitors cannot get a hold of the seller and there solicitor (must be friends holidaying together).  Does my cooling off period now start 5 days after the contract is fully signed.  The banks have already done there evalauation and I have done my inspections so thats over 1k of overheads i would lose if I walked away from the deal. Just seems wrong they can draw the contract out like this, because its not like i dont want the house….so do i just have to put up with it?