Average over 60?! No! That's complete rubbish whoever told you that. Scaremongering at its best!
Personally, I took more time researching than writing. I also included more of my own opinion (Dissertation especially) into the work, elaborating on the author I was quoting and applying their logic to various examples. Norrie & Tata are ********s, they will not offer much help. You'd be better off e-mailing someone like Professor Robson, Prof. Neal or even Poustie.. My dissertation got me 79% which was great. If you want a read at it, I could send it over to you. I'm pretty sure they'll have it up on the Intranet for Honours students soon anyway !