Melbourne/Syndney/Canberra - your recommendations/advice please please please?

MKS

Sorry I don't know how to do the link so have copied a my post from Jan 2008 in answer to another posters question. Hope it may be of interest to you. On that trip we had three weeks and did the following
Sydney
Melbourne (only one night to have dinner with old school friend)
Melbourne to Adelaide - Great Ocean Road
Adelaide - to see nephew and surrounding area (Vineyards are very good here if you like wine!)
Alice Springs with day trip (VERY long day!) to Ayers Rock (We could have three days at AS and day trip for much less then one night at AR!) Tour thro Emu tours - good company and great BBQ at sunset at AR. They also keep you supplied throughout the tour with water, fruit and snacks - other operators charged extra for these items.
Cairns
Back to Sydney for last night.

Hi
We found the cheapest one way car rental price was from DriveNow.com.au. We paid Aus$198 (approx £90) for a weeks hire for a Corolla automatic last November, picking it up at Melbourne and dropping it off at Adelaide after driving the Great Ocean Road. They gave us a free upgrade when we picked it up. I booked it a few months before we went for approx £20 more and when I re-checked later saw it had come down in price, so just cancelled and re-booked! They have a no cancellation fee policy. If you have one, take your own SatNav as they were expensive if you wanted to hire one. They are great when you just want to drive and explore.

For internal flights, register with Virginblue, Jetstar and Quantas. They all have regular sales. We paid Aus$29 each for flights fron Sydney to Melbourne.

Hotel-wise, we used Travelodge (much better standard than here), Best Western, Majestic, Radisson and Novotel. Do a hotelscomparison.com or hotelscombined.com search for the best price. Book the accommodation, if it's a good price - I always try to use hotels which operate a 'no cancellation fee' policy than can cancel and re-book if I can get it cheaper. Think about self catering. We stayed at The Lakes Resort (http://www.thelakescairns.com.au) just outside of Cairns - it was superb. Last year we stayed at the Rockford Novotel Resort ( http://www.novotel-pcr.com.au/) in Palm Cove (between Cairns and Port Douglas)- again superb accommodation. This has the added advantage of having a washing machine etc. When booking hotels etc try and go through Quidco for extra savings.

In Sydney, we went to the Blue Mountains by train and Explorer ticket - allows you to hop on, hop off at different places. ( http://www.cityrail.info/fares/link_tickets.jsp) That was much cheaper than the excursion price and allowed us to see what we wanted to rather than be whisked round on a coach and not seeing so much.

A restaurant that we visited at Kings Wharf was James Squire. The food was fantastic and not expensive by city standards, portions were good as well. (http://www.jamessquirebrewhouse.net/) See the menu page. It's a brewers and they have an enormous range of beers.

Ditto in Cairns. We drove to Cape Tribulation/Daintree ourselves and had so much more time than on an organized tour. We also went to Kuranda by ourselves. If you want to go up by the train, it only goes up a couple of times in the morning. If you go on this, ask for window seats for the best views. The Skyrail operates all day. Most of the shops in Kuranda close early afternoon. In our opinion, a must-do is The Rainforest Habitat just outside of Port Douglas. (http://www.rainforesthabitat.com.au/about/prices.htm) We got the 4 park pass which we felt was good value. The Butterfly Sanctuary is actually in Kuranda and the Rainforestation is near there as well. The all parks pass includes everything at the Rainforestation, even the Duck Tour. Morning is the best time to go as all the coaches descend in the afternoon and it gets mobbed, We also visited a coffee plantation - Coffee Works,(http://www.arabicas.com.au/) I think it was about Aus$9 but that included a tour, loads of coffe and tea tasting as well as chocolates (milk, plain and white). I am not fussed with chocolate but the Lemon Myrtle and Lime and Black Pepper were fantastic. We drove into the Highlands and the Tableland and saw totally different sides of North Queensland. We came across the 'Out of the whey' cafe ( http://www.cairnsdining.com/review_52.html) ( http://www.mungallicreekdairy.com.au/) It really was as the review reads - totally different to Cairns and very cool - when we was there it was 17c as opposed to Cairns 28c.

We did the Green Island trip to the Barrier Reef and were a bit disappointed. It was very commercialised and the coral was not the same varied colours that we had seen the previous year when we took a trip that took us to two different locations on the reef. IMHO one of the best BR locations is Lady Elliot Island which is at the other end of the BR. It is situated between Brisbane and Rockhampton. We splashed out and had a day trip by air when we stayed nearby in Bundaberg. It cost Aus$160 each and it was worth every penny. Flying in to the Island was a view I will never forget. It is an eco conservation island and not commercialised at all. (http://www.ladyelliotislandresort.net/) It's a small island that you can walk around, paddle in the sea amongst the coral, snorkling etc. Lunch is usually included. The coral that we saw here were brilliant colours - just as I had always thought it would be. Excellent day out.

I found that the Australian forums on Tripadvisor were a good place for info.
HTH. I am sure you'll have a fantastic time.