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Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @BecB. It's a pleasure to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about shower recess linings.
Aquacheck is suitable for use in a shower recess and is more than capable of holding the weight of tiles. You can check out the installation process in this guide. You'll find details from page 48 onwards. Aquacheck can be used in both tiled and non-tiled wet areas.
Ideally, the shower recess substrate should never be exposed to water, as the shower membrane protects it. However, Aquacheck has had rigorous testing done on it, and its performance is more than suitable for the application. Villaboard is a suitable alternative; there's no reason you couldn't use it for the shower recess or a combination of the two. You'll find, though, that the plaster has a much better surface for the untiled areas and is ready to paint.
It's hard to give a definitive answer on what product is best. However, since Aquacheck is suitable for a shower recess, I believe that the most straightforward approach would be to sheet out the entire bathroom with Aquacheck. That way, you won't have to deal with the transition between the two materials and the thickness difference.
Please let me know if you have further questions.
Mitchell
