Is there a way that the variable names I need to be defined can be automatically put here?
Or am I missing something - obvious?
(I am good at missing elephants now and then)
Edit your subflow (click the 'edit subflow template' button in the screenshot you shared)
Click 'Edit properties' in the subflow toolbar to open up its edit dialog
In the first tab is where you can define Environment Variables. Anything you add to that list will then show up in the properties tab of any instance of the subflow.
Note that these do not show up in the Env Var tab of the instance - they show up on the first Properties tab. The Env Var tab is where you can set additional ones that haven't been predefined for the subflow.