I'm planning a trip to Australia from Canada in April to visit my girlfriend who's just started attending the university of Queensland. We want to do some traveling in the region and are wondering where we should go. We've heard about the usual places, gold coast, sunshine coast, fraser island but we're wondering where some less known places to visit might be. We have about 12 days to travel and we're generally the outdoors types.

Thanks for all the help in advance,
Geoff

Lamington national park-do the walk to the stinson crash.
Climb Mt Warning
Swim in the pool at the base of Minyon falls.
Dolphin kayak at Byron.
Stay in the cravan park at Broken Head.
Go to the Channon markets.

If you a rental car, you could consider some of my favourite drives/places, eg. Mary Valley Way from Maleny, Kenilworth, Imbil, then to Gympie, then take another drive from Gympie across to Tin Can Bay & Rainbow Beach. From Rainbow Beach, there are 4WD companies that will take you across Inskip Point onto Fraser Island for a day trip, or longer camping trip.
I don't think you would be disappointed with the Mary Valley Way, beautiful green countryside, with contented cattle, pockets of rainforest, quaint villages, and unusual pubs, etc.
Another place easily visited from Brisbane, would Tangalooma Resort on North Moreton Island, either stay or go for a day visit. If you stay you may get the opportunity to feed wild dolphins.
Another place to visit - North Stradbroke Island, either by driving to Cleveland, parking the car in the carpark, and getting a fast water taxi over, then buses around to various places on the island, or take the rental car over on the vehicular ferry, and stay a couple of nights.
The main beach is a nice beach, however, another nearby beach called Cylinder Beach, with its white sand and beautiful aqua blue water is simply stunning. They did a shark attack there recently around on the channel side, at a place called Amity Point, which was unfortunate, as it is known for bull sharks, and I believe the young girl was swimming with a dog.
However, lots of people swim in our waters each year, and I think we lose about 2 people per year, which is low, when compared to how many people die from bee stings in Oz.

Some alternative thoughts and they may be way off beam. How about Carnarvon Gorge (I've never been there - but I would so like to go). You could combine with a trip to Gt Keppel which is a lovely island for R & R.

Fly up to Rockhampton (you may still be able to get a cheapie) - hire a car and take a road trip - then on return do the island thing. And fly, or maybe drive back to Brissie. Fraser Is is worth seeing.

For your further research - cos it might not appeal at all!!

Cheers.

night tour at currumbin wildlife sanctuary
natural arch
goo Mt tamborine (or tamborine moutain) for thunder egg hunting, cedar creek falls, do the tree top walk and feed birds,
Bunya Mountains and stay a night or two in a log cabin, feed the wallabies and go for a bush walk in the mountain
Glass house mountains

Try Heron Island for a couple of days, not cheap but fantastic

Drive to Toowoomba and have lunch at the Spooted Cow.. you will not be disappointed and Toowoombas gardens and parks are just plain nice !

I've spent a lot of time in the Brisbane/Gold Coast area over the years visiting my in-law who live there. I love exploring lesser known areas and have done a lot of hiking in the region, which has a lot to offer. You've already had some very good suggestions, particularly Mt Warning (pretty close), and Carnarvon Gorge (a good day's drive away and worth at least a couple of night's stay).

A couple of more: I particularly like the drive out to Tenterfield, SW of Brisbane, along the Mt Lindsay Hwy (not a really highway at all; in fact its not even paved in some stretches). The road is very beautiful in some stretches, especially in the Mt Barney/Mt Lindsay area. Take the detour in to the base of Mt. Barney, an impressive sight. Climbing Mt. Barney is an all day affair (I did it in '02) and well worth it if you have the time and energy. If not, there are shorter walks near the base to consider. Nearer Tenterfield is the turn off to Bald Rock - a lesser known, but amazing spot. It is a huge granite dome, sort of a granite version of Ayers Rock, set deep in "the bush". It's a steep, but not treacherous climb, perhaps 20-30 mins to the top. Also not to be missed is nearby Girraween Nat'l Park. This has more in the way of fantastic granite formations, most notably The Pyramid, which make for an awesome 1.5 -2 hr hike up and back.

I've spent a lot of time in the Brisbane/Gold Coast area over the years visiting my in-law who live there. I love exploring lesser known areas and have done a lot of hiking in the region, which has a lot to offer. You've already had some very good suggestions, particularly Mt Warning, Lamington Nat'l Park (pretty close), and Carnarvon Gorge (a good day's drive away and worth at least a couple of night's stay).

A couple more: I particularly like the drive out to Tenterfield, SW of Brisbane, along the Mt Lindsay Hwy (not a really highway at all; in fact its not even paved in some stretches). The road is very beautiful in some stretches, especially in the Mt Barney/Mt Lindsay area. Take the detour in to the base of Mt. Barney, an impressive sight. Climbing Mt. Barney is an all day affair (I did it in '02) and well worth it if you have the time and energy. If not, there are shorter walks near the base to consider. Nearer Tenterfield is the turn off to Bald Rock - a lesser known, but amazing spot. It is a huge granite dome, sort of a granite version of Ayers Rock, set deep in "the bush". It's a steep, but not treacherous climb, perhaps 20-30 mins to the top. Also not to be missed is nearby Girraween Nat'l Park. This has more in the way of fantastic granite formations, most notably The Pyramid, which make for an awesome 1.5 -2 hr hike up and back. From Tenterfield, you could consider a drive straight down to the coast, via Casino and Lismore to Byron Bay (a very beautiful spot) and the Mt Warning area.

In all the above hiking locations you are almost guaranteed to encounter Australian wildlife, kangaroos for certain.

A very pretty way of driving to Mt Warning from Brisbane is the inland route through the lovely Numinbah Valley (turning off the Pacific Hwy at Nerang, following signs for the Natural Arch and Murwillumbah). Natural Arch is well worth a stop. The road becomes most pretty as it climbs up to the Queensland/NSW border with great views of the ranges, the ocean and Mt Warning.

In general, I tend to prefer the immediate inland areas south and west of Brisbane (like those mentioned above) than those due west and north. Nonetheless, there are still some great spots. The Glasshouse Mts, just inland from the Sunshine Coast, are very interesting - the remains of volcanos of old. With the exception of Mt Ngun Ngun, they are relatively difficult to climb. I did Mt Beerwah several years ago - very steep at the bottom but doable without ropes - if it's not wet. And the view is magnificent.

Northernboy - as you can see, all the contributors have listed some of their favourite places in southern Queensland, and central West Queensland. I agree with each persons recommendation, I don't think you would be disappointed with any of these destinations.
There are some great drives & places to visit, so steer away from the touristy areas like the Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast, and go see some of the magical places on Queensland & Northern NSW.

For outdoors types looking for less well known spots, have a look at Hinchinbrook Island. This is Australia's largest national park island, beaches, wildlife, rainforest mountains to climb. Just off Cardwell, a small fishing town between Townsville and Cairns.