We will be in Oz for 8 weeks. We start in Melbourne with rental car and plan to drive to Brisbane...leisurly.
want to see GOR, Blue Mtns, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Whitsundays. Want to stay several days at places.
Fly from Brisbane to Cairns.
Another rental car. Stay Port Douglas. See GBR and ...
Fly to Sydney before flying home.
Suggestions for an itinerary and what to see & do would be appreciated. Not divers but love the beach & water, national parks, zoos/wildlife, beautiful scenery, some hiking & meeting the wonderful people in Oz.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi, JIW!
Eight weeks! Wow! You will do quite a lot in that time, and I am sure you will get lots of suggestions. I have one or two already -- e.g. taking the car ferry across to Tasmania -- but I will hold fire until you answer one more, rather important, question for us: which two months are you coming in? Knowing this will help us a lot.

I am sooo dumb...of course you need to know that...sorry
Arrive Sydney April 10, 2004 then fly to
Melbourne April 13,2004 to start drive part of trip.
Plan to fly from Brisbane to Cairns, then Cairns back to Sydney a few days before depart for home on May 31, 2004 for LAX.

Well, JIW, I don't think you could have chosen a better time to come to Australia's east coast... the weather will be ideal for both the coastal cities and the inland.
During your first few days in Sydney, do try to go to the Royal Easter Show in Homebush Bay (where the Olympics were held back in 2000). By the time you get back again later in your trip, it will be over.
Tasmania ia a great idea while you're in Melbourne... you can get the overnight ferry, which takes your car also. Spend around a week driving around this island before it gets too cold.
Coming back, maybe drive from Melbourne to Adelaide along the Great Ocean Road, then see the Barossa Valley north of Adelaide.
You could drive back to Sydney via an inland route and see part of the "real" Australia: maybe (from the Barossa)Mildura-Hay-Narrandera-Wagga-Canberra and then (after about three days in Canberra) back to Sydney. (An alternative would be to go Hay-West Wyalong-Parkes-Dubbo-Bathurst, but you'd have to promise me to fit in Canberra on your return to Sydney at the end of May. This route takes you from Bathurst straight to the Blue Mountains, which you'd want to see anyway, and this is the time of year to see it.)Even if you go to Canberra on the first time around, you may like to do Canberra-Goulburn-Oberon-Bathurst and do the Blue Mountains before the colder May weather arrives.
The coast road from Sydney to Brisbane is a bit disappointing nowadays (just a lot of freeways stuck together, and you seldom see the water) so I think my advice here might be to catch your plane from Sydney straight through to Cairns.... or do it in two legs, and stop for a few days in sunny Brisbane.
North of Brisbane I am far from knowledgeable, so I will let someone else take over here. I think, however, that with the quality of the help you will get here from people like Janese, who knows Queensland like the back of her hand, you are headed for the holiday of a lifetime. I envy you!

ttt

If you are coming to Adelaide in South Australia you must visit Kangaroo Island. Its a wildlife and scenery paradise.
Lots of wallabies, kangaroos, goannas, seals, sealions, pelicans and spectacular scenery.
Email me if you want more info.
Michael

Its not mentioned much here but if you are going melbourne -sydney with ample time...the "alpine way" is well worth consideration.
The upper murray is quite beautiful.Climb Mt Kosciousko..perhaps stay over at Thredbo.then cross the monaro to canberra and then down to the
coast at batemans bay.