sounds like a dumb question but money is an issue (as usual) and i want to make absolutely sure before i go spending any money on parts!

now my trusty steed is starting to become a handful under acceleration and cruising the H'way on anything but super smooth surfaces! so i need to show it some love and swap in some new front shocks, i swapped the rears out for some heavy duty shocks a little while back & they have been great so i want to do the same for the fronts but the only heavy dutys i can find are for a NA/C/F/L Fairlaine & i have my humble EL Falcon, are the two compatible? or should i just buy a set of standards and change them in 12 months time?

Yep....same.
In Ford stuff....the povo models had black shockies, the next up were grey shockies (heavy duty), and then XR6/8 spec.
The EF's were yellow, and the EL's were blue.....in the XR spec.

cheers mate! just going shopping on eBay though & all shocks are yellow lol unless their Bilsteins!