Planning the following as part of a longer trip, but need advice!

24th Jul - Sydney (3 nights)
27th Jul - Fly to Hervey Bay, 5 nights (incl whale watching and Fraser Island)
1st Aug - to Gladstone
2nd Aug - Heron Island (4 nights)
6th Aug - Gladstone to Sydney

Questions:
Main reason for going to HB is for whale watching. Ideally want to be there on 29th Jul for whale-mad son's 9th birthday. Should we skip FI in favour of more time elsewhere? Will Heron Island be worthwhile at this time (warm enough?). What would be the best way of getting to/from Gladstone/Hervey Bay - how long would it take to drive? Should we be trying to fit in some time around Cairns? Main interest is GBR.
Thanks for any advice! We have 3 children aged 7,9 and 11 and this is their first trip to Oz.

I've been to Heron Island in August. The weather was beautiful: mild and sunny (T-shirt weather). I found it warm enough to snorkel without a wetsuit, but I got a bit cold after half an hour. You can hire wetsuits on the island if you find that's the case.

We saw a whale breaching on the way back from Heron Island which was an amazing sight. I think September is the key month for whales passing the island. On the Heron Island website they have a biological calendar which would identify the animal movements at that time of year. We have gone a couple of times in January to see the turtles laying and hatching. Absolute magic!!

C'mon Ralph...
as yogi berra said "deja vu all over again"

It sound all very good we did same thing 4 years ago and drove up from Brisbane to Gladstone 10 hours so suggest you take 2 days and go via glass house mountains.

Accom at Kingfisher is good which is on Fraser Island - the whale watching boats leave from there. We saw 100's of whales and you don't have to leave so early from the mainland. Kingfisher also run a Junior ranger programme each day which your kids would love. We stayed in the apartments - spacious and great views amongst the tree tops. Only issue was the service was a bit ordinary - Heron Island will also be nice - stayed there as well.

Virgin Blue http://www.virginblue.com.au/ and Jetstar http://www.jetstar.com/au/
have direct flights to Hervey Bay (Fraser Coast Airport) from Sydney. NB these are discount airlines so read carefully their booking/cancellation and restrictions policies.
Fraser Is (large sand island with heavy vegetation; perched lakes and sand blows) http://www.queenslandholidays.com.au.../fraser-coast/
is a very different island to Heron Is (small coral cay) http://www.heronisland.com/. Both highly recommended but quite differnt in what they offer.
Whale watching out of HB is well established with competitive prices and choices depending on your budget. The season starts in mid July so you will be there very early - might be worth checking with the operators about whether there will be whales there in good enough numbers.
Hire cars readily availalbe. Drive time from HB to Gladstone approx 3.5 hrs. The RACQ website has a good travel planner that may be helpful.
http://www.racq.com.au/cps/rde/xchg/...r_ENA_HTML.htm
Hope that helps
Bundy girl

I live in H/Bay, so I might be able to help in your enquiries. June/July can be cool, with water temps around 21 degrees or less (but not as cold as Sydney). We experienced a reasonable amount of rain in the past 2 weeks, but today is cool, winds from Sth West, sunny, but later this week we should experience day temps around 21 degrees. Everyone has given you info on Fraser Island & Heron Island, but could I suggest, doing something a little bit different. Instead of driving to Gladstone, then going to Heron Island, why not fly direct to Hervey Bay, see the whales & Fraser Island, then without paying extra for rental car/petrol etc, why not catch the Lady Elliot Island flight from Hervey Bay airport, direct to this gem of coral island in 30 minutes, stay for 3 days, then fly back to H/Bay, then direct back to Sydney with either Virgin Blue or Jetstar.

Okay John, I take the bait. I completely agree with Susan, having been to Heron Island a couple of times in August. We also saw whales on Heron at that time, on one occassion while we were snorkeling, very near by! We rented wet suit tops for extended snorkels and to minimize coral scrapes.

Ten hours seems rather long for the Brisbane-Gladstone drive. My recollection is about 6 hours. It's about 550 km (~340 miles). We've usually done the trip in one day.

I'd love to hear how the trip went!