I'd reckon linoleum will be more the go actually Mel so the frogs [that's french] can slip and slide about making their mind up first.

Bit pointless in attempting to give anyone too much detail in the form of cough medicine even if you do know the symptons.

There is a man made beach along the Brisbane River with a pool. I saw people using it last July, but mostly just for the beach as it was winter.

Brisbane is nice (I spent almost 3 weeks there) but not for the beach. I did drive from Brisbane to Byron Bay. Not a bad drive and the view is spectacular but do you have to go to the eastern most point in Australia? I was in Australia. There are gorgeous beach views all over. I flew between Sydney and Brisbane, so I did not cover anything between Sydney to Byron Bay by car.

If you have kids ONE zoo is a must. Once you have had your photo taken with a koala and fed the kangaroos, it is all pretty much the same (at least with the zoos I saw). The Australia Zoo is way overrated--not to mention too expensive. The crocodile show is a big bunch of nothing.

Thanks guys! I have passed on all the advice. The suggestion to fly Brisbane to Newcastle was one of my first suggestions to them (VirginBlue fly that route for $59 including all taxes at that time of the year - a fantastic deal if you ask me!) - but that is not what they want to do. In fact, I was told it is ALL (including flights and accommodation) being prebooked through their Lyon travel agent!?!?)

As for one zoo, my daughter was told that they did not plan to do a native Australian animal park - What!?!? What about the 10 year old that LOVES animals?

We have decided to offer no further advice for now as I think they have pretty much made up their minds, and were just looking for us to "rubber stamp" their choices.

FurryTiles - you did warn me about them having fixed ideas and your own sense of responsibility for them to have a good time. I don't think the two are compatible.

We have sent 2 emails over the last couple of days - it usually takes a couple of weeks for them to get back to us. Will let you guys share my news when it comes.

Good grief. Not going to a zoo? That was first on my list. You have all these weird animals we don't have. It was after the first zoo I saw 4 (!) that it got less and less interesting. Always stop to see the animals and feed a kangaroo or two if you have kids!

The trees and general fauna are fascinating as well.

Aw, so sorry to hear your experience has almost paralleled mine – yep, time to take a huge step away; you’ve done all you could, put time and effort into researching on their behalf and coming up with more reasonable itineraries, only to be rebuffed.

Take heart that all the posts on this thread are pretty unanimous that they’re attempting way too much, and now leave them to it!

If they do eventually have a few days in Sydney, perhaps they could take a ferry ride from Circular Quay to the zoo. You can then take a shuttle to the top, stroll through the zoo (which is on a hill) and then catch the ferry back to Circular Quay (or to Manly to explore the city beaches).

The OP is right that the drive down the east coast (The Pacific Highway) is mostly a long way inland. they won't have ocean views if that's what they are planning on. I think they are going to be disappointed, but there's a limit to how much help you can offer. Good luck!

Hello again to all my friendly helpers.

We now have an itinerary from France as follows:
Day 1 Arrive Sydney (actually I think this is wrong. I think they arrive Day 2 in Sydney and connect through to Perth. Not sure why they don't fly direct to Perth? I will ask).
Day 2 Sydney - Perth (stay at Fremantle)
Day 3 Visit Fremantle (stay at Fremantle)
Day 4 Visit Rockingham and Mandurah (stay at Fremantle)
Day 5 Visit Perth (stay at Fremantle)
Day 6 Drive to Cervantes (stay at Cervantes)
Day 7 Visit Pinacles Desert (stay at Cervantes)
Day 8 Drive to Perth (stay at airport hotel)
Day 9 Fly Perth - Sydney and Sydney - Gold Coast. Stay Surfers or Byron Bay.
Day 10 Stay Surfers or Byron Bay
Day 11 Stay Surfers or Byron Bay
Day 12 Fly Gold Coast to Newcastle. Drive to Nelson Bay (stay Nelson Bay).
Day 13 Drive to Sydney (stay near Pymble or Manly or Collaroy for rest of stay)
Day 14 - 16 Sydney
Day 17 Fly to Bangkok and on to Lyon.

This would not be my choice if I were coming to Australia for 2 weeks, but I am interested in your comments.

Any idea why they want to vist Rockingham and Mandurah?

Yes, I'd also think that a flight direct into Perth would be far better for them.
Could Rockingham be for swim with dolphins experience? - they can also do that just north of Port Stephens at Forster/Tuncurry and also possibly at Port Stephens but I think that one is more associated with a research organisation and a lot more expensive.

I'd suggest that as for Gold Coast/Byron, they could maintain a central base for a few days on the Gold Coast [ plenty of interests for all]
. Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary up at Brisbane where they can cuddle one.
. There's an evening Outback Spectacular show
. The theme parks of course
. Glow worms at Natural Arch out in hinterland and the hinterland rainforest environments, Mt Tamborine etc.

And then they can always do Byron Bay as a day trip.

They'll at least see some comparison of the drier WA countryside as against eastcoast greenery and if they wanted to swing balance greenery way, a few more days doing a farm stay in the northern NSW or upper Hunter/Barrington Tops areas would be great.

Melnq8,
I have absolutely no idea why Rockingham and Mandurah are on their itinerary - I don't know WA, so I thought they must know something I don't. You seem to know WA too - I thought you may be able to enlighten me.

PLRCH -

I've just recently begun researching Mandurah and Rockingham as a day trip for myself. So far I've learned that Baldivis (near Mandurah) is home to the only commerical grower, producer and supplier of macadamia nuts in Western Australia. There's also a Sunday market held on Mandurah's eastern foreshore waterfront, a pretty drive from Mandurah to Jarrahdale and a few wineries, including Millbrook. There are some interesting looking trails in the Serpentine-Jarrahdale region that have definitely piqued my interest.

As for Rockingham, I've discovered that there are dolphin, penguin and sea lion 'encounters' and it's only a five minute ferry ride from Rockingham to Penguin Island, home of the largest colony of little penguins in WA.

Perhaps these folks have done more homework than we originally thought!

I plan to drive down to Mandurah on Sunday to check it out for myself.

It used to be a kind of an idyllic inlet Mel with great fishing back a few decades ago and I suppose fish are still about but time has caught up with Perth having probably more doubled in size over last 30 years and a lot more development down there kind of taking the serenity away.
But perhaps more of general interst now by sounds of your research than just fishing/water sports.

Hi again, PRLCH

Good to see they’ve scrapped the idea of driving Brisbane-Sydney and taken your initial advice of flying Gold Coast-Newcastle.

From the updated itinerary, looks like they plan to hire a car at Newcastle airport and drive to Nelson Bay.

Can’t help with the WA part, other than hope the criss-crossing Syd-Perth-Syd is indeed ‘wrong’ - but the Hunter/Port Stephens section is my stamping ground, so happy to help with this if I can. Although from the itinerary, it looks as if they’re only staying one night? Not much time for anything, if they’re arriving from the Gold Coast on day 12, overnighting, then driving off day 13 to Sydney? If so, it's really not much more than a 'comfort' stop, that doesn't leave much room for any recommendations, wink.

Hi FurryTiles,
I think the single night in Port Strephens is an error. Their itinerary lists 2 days there (with differnt activities each day), BUT the two days have the same date!! It seems the travel agent has put it together and clearly she has made a mistake. We have drawn this to their attention, and also the fact that they can save about 11 hours travel time if they fly direct from Bangkok to Perth (ie. flight about 2 hours shorter than to Sydney, no longer do they have the 4 hour connecting time for Perth, and af course the 5 hour flight over is then not needed). As mother does not like flying, and except for daughter #1 their longest trip has been 3 hours within Europe, I think our argument will be persuasive. I must admit I am shocked that their travel agent has not made this clear to them!

At then end of the day, I just hope they have a good time!

Thanks for the offer of advice re Port Stephens - I will ask. My folks live at Corlette (Nelson Bay), so we get up that way a fair bit ourselves - although we often don't do much up there.

<<At then end of the day, I just hope they have a good time!>>

So true, and with tweaking this new itinerary and 'fixing' the travel agent's quite alarming mistakes, it certainly looks like a 'good time' is much more possible than with their first itinerary! You done good, prlch!

Great you've got folks in Corlette to help with the P.S input as well as all your own visits there.

PRLCH -

Just a follow up to my trip to Mandurah yesterday. We visted the mac nut farm in Baldivis, had a wonderful lunch at Millbrook winery in Jarrahdale, visited Raven Wines in Pinjarra and made a stop at the Sunday market on the eastern forshore in Mandarah.

Loved Jarrahdale, but didn't get the attraction of Mandurah. The waterfront was nice enough, but it was no nicer than many similar places right here in Perth, so I'm still curious as to why they're coming all the way to Perth, then heading down to Rockingham and Mandurah instead of just enjoying Perth in their limited time.

Oh well...