My itinerary in Brisbane for late February 2007.

Day 1. Arrive in Brisbane
Day 2. Brisbane, City walk, Botanical gardens
Day 3. Brisbane, Queensland Art Galery, ride on City Cat Ferries
Day 4. Drive to Nerang and use a base.
Day 5. Nerang, Green Mountain walk in Lamington
Day 6. Nerang, Binna Burra walk in Lemington
Day 7. Nerang, Springbrook Park and Natural Bridge walks
Day 8. Drive to Inverell via Coolangta - Murvilumbah - Balina - Casino - Tenterfield do some hiking along the way.
Day 9. Inverell, Fossiking for emeralds assuming I can find suitable location and arragements ahead of time.
Day 10. Drive to Lightning Ridge.
Day 11. Visit Opal mining areas.
Day 12. Drive to Goondwindi
Day 13. Drive to Toowoomba.
Day 14. Drive To Brisbane
Day 15. fly to my next stop, Adelaide

Any suggestions for improvements and comments for things to do at locations or along the way would be most welcome.

I presume they are just typos - but the correct spelling for the following are: Coolangatta, Murwillumbah, Ballina and Goondiwindi.
I thought you might have problems finding further information using the spelling you had.

Z: With limited time, not sure I would do both the Springbrook, Binna Burra and Green Mts back to back. They are pretty similar. More impressive views are immediately seen at Green Mts (O'Reilly's), which would be my pick. Maybe substitute one of them for a drive down the coast to Byron, or perhaps a climb of Mt Warning?

Also see my recent posting about "where to go from Brisbane". I suggest driving to Tenterfield via the Mt Lindsay Hwy instead. Stop at Mt Barney, Bald Rock and Girraween along the way. Considering you have a longish that day (day 8), you won't have a lot of time for walking. But you should at least be able to climb Bald Rock. Or you could consider overnighting in Tenterfield instead, though this makes for an even longer drive to Lightning Ridge the next day.

I would support RalphR on the trip down the coast to say Broken Head and a walk through the lttoral rainforest instead of one of your Lamington days.

For day 8 i would go..

coolangatta
murwillumbah (visit the rainforest centre)
nimbin
casino
tenterfield etc

do a short deviation to do the pinnacle walk...get an excellent view of the tweed valley/mtwarning and the caldera.

Whatever you do, DO NOT base yourself in Nerang - there is nothing I can think of that is worth staying in there, or doing there.
Mt Tamborine is a much better base with lots to see as well.

I will definetely check out Mt. Tamborine as the base from which to take day trips. My selection of Nerang was strictly based on closer location to the main highway and availability of abundant accomadations. Thank you for your suggestions.

LizF, I note that there is Tamborine Mountain and what appears to be another town Tamborine close by. Is the place called Tamborine Mountain the main town and the best place to use as a base?

Agree with all other posters. There is no advanatge to basing yourself in Nerang, espcially given what you are wanting to do. Staying at Tamborine mountain (more memorable than staying at tamborine village) is a good idea or o'reillys or whatever. That way you could save a day and do the Mt warning walk (a good half day or so). Take swimmers (togs, bathers, whatever) in and around lamington.

I can't think of the advantage of driving Mt Lindsey HWY but it is shorter. Why not try
-brisbane to Lamington,
lamo to Nerang (assuming you wanted to be at Nerang for a reason or wanted to go to the beach) then onto Mt warning
-to inverell as per your plan
-etc etc etc
-if there is no major reason for goondawindi then there are a heap of other places instead (eg bunyas, stanthorpe, jondaryn etc etc
-then toowoomba. email me in january and I'll help you with toowoomba

o'rielly's is a bit expensive (unless you go for the cheapy rooms but here's the site http://www.oreillys.com.au plus check out
http://www.beaudeserttourism.com.au and there are links to accomodation from there.

here's another site

http://www.queenslandshiddenoasis.com.au/
oh and swimming is better at springbrook not tamborine but I would consider using noth tamborine as a base if you wanted

check this site for springbrook
http://www.verygc.com/

Yes there is Tamborine Mountain and Tamborine Village - the village is not where I suggest you should go.
The following is a good web site http://www.beaudeserttourism.com.au/pub/cat_bnbs.php
which will give you a good list of accommodation and things to do about the whole area.
As for swimming I think that the best of all is the lovely waterhole at Natural Bridge, easy to get to and beautiful too.

Swimming is good at natural arch but don't follow the example of the backpackers who jump off the top of the falls.

Thanks,

Z

Just to let you know, there is another 'town' right next to/part of Mt Tambourine - which is called 'Eagle Heights', if that may have been what you were thinking.

Eagle Heights is a suburb of Tamborine Mountain, as is North Tamborine. There is accommodation all over the mountain with a good range of prices. If you are staying for any length of time then I would perhaps suggest asking for a special rate as February is a dead month here for accommodation. There is cheap accommodation in the motel section of St Bernard's Hotel, I am not sure if the hotel still has accommodation too but if so it would be reasonable, there are cottages for rent, and rooms in B&Bs.
Just remember though that you are coming in perhaps the hottest month of the year so places like Lightening Ridge and Inverell will be HOT!!!!! There is a great pub at Lightening Ridge with accommodation and there would be quite a bit of accommodation in Inverell as well which is very reasonable. Once there you can get directions to any of the fossiking areas.

Don't expect to find too many emeralds around Inverell, plenty of green saphires though ! If you can spend some time around Stanthorpe, great wineries and also some good fossicking for Quartz crystals ( includin large smokey quartz crystals!). Maybe skip Goondiwindi ? A day in Toowoomba will be a very pleasant cool change from what you will have experienced at the Ridge !!!! It will be HOT!!