Hi! I'm a study abroad student in Melbourne and with a couple of friends plan to take a backpacking trip to Queensland esp. the GBR in june. I researched a lot of package tours offered by student travel agencies and they are in range of A$1300-A$1700 (includes transportation from cairns-bris, hostel type acco., half meals, guided tours but no airfare or inclusion of adventure stuff) for 10 days. My biggest issues are:
1) budget. try to get in $1000 or less
2) avoid florida type theme parks & overly commercial and tourist infested places.

Now my question is:
What are two-three must go places except from cairns and must-do things and have a unique australian experience. Suggestions on fraser island (how to get around w/o renting 4WD), surfers' paradise and general tips on places and budget will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading this article...

June is a great time to visit the Great Barrier Reef. Jetstar have flights from Brisbane to the whitsundays in June for $69 (june 6, with wednesdays appearing to be the cheapest day to fly). Airlie beach is a haven for backpackers and is a great place to relax and get out on the water. The Whitsundays is great for sailing and tour companies offer day trips and multi day trips,inclusive of meals, snorkelling and island walks. a 3 day trip(2nights) will cost in the range of $400 aus.
Unfortunately cannot comment on Fraser Island as I haven't been there other than Hervey bay being one place to accomodate yourself for a visit.
The Gold Coast is the tourism capital of Australia, so if your not looking for touristy places, I would not base my holiday on a visit. If you have a stopover in Brisbane, then it is worth a day for a look.
look at both http://www.virginblue.com.au and
http://www.jetstar.com/au/index.html
for flights and fly midweek for cheapest airfares.
also think about using bus travel between the likes of airlie beach and Hervey Bay.
Carry out a bit of research and I'm sure you could do better than $1300 without airfares as quoted by your travel agent.
Hope this helps!

Fraser Island in winter and without a FWD is not worth thinking about because there is no way around the island without transport which would either have to be rental car or tours. If you want to have a southern Qld island experience then take the ferry over to Morton Island off Brisbane and camp on the island and join in the dolphin feeding at night.

PS Re: the Gold Coast or Surfer's Paradise - there are many, many things to see and do there without going to the theme parks BUT you might want to stay away from Surfer's Paradise itself and stay in places like Broadbeach, Miami, Burleigh Heads, Tweed Heads etc. Do a google search on the Gold Coast to see what you could see and do and what some of the accommodation is like. From there you could go to Brisbane having booked a cheap flight to Cairns. You could even just think of going to Cairns and staying there in a back-packers for the 10 days as there would be enough things to do there to fill in your days.

The Cool Dingo Tours on Fraser Island are great value and a lot of fun for younger travellers. Fraser is a beautiful place - highly recommended.