My wife and I will be visiting the Brisbane, Australia area in November. We been to Australia many times (we LOVE Australia) but have never visited the Southern Queensland region. Other than a couple of days on Fraser Island, we are pretty much open for more than a week.
Any “don’t miss” things that we should consider? Also, any recommendations on tour guides to Fraser Island?
Since you’re looking for advice and suggestions rather than facts, I’ll move this thread to IMHO.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Watch out for the drop bears.
Uh, Brisvegas?
No, not really. Personally, I’d probably struggle to fill an afternoon in Brisbane.
Considering the season, you might like to grab a car and drive to somewhere like Byron Bay for a week on the beach - or you could try the Sunshine Coast just north of Brisbane - but I don’t know whether there are stingers on the beaches that far South in November. There’s some decent bushwalking around both places, too.
I don’t recommend spending much time on the Gold Coast - the only things worth noting there are that strangers in bikinis will feed your parking meters for you and that there are three theme parks and a casino.
Sorry, no go on Fraser Island. If I were going I’d probably rent a 4WD and tool around for a while on my own.
Not actually in Brisbane, but just outside: the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. (http://www.koala.net/)
It’s a properly run, non-exploitative sanctuary, that also has a paddock full of roos and wallabies that you can hand-feed. We spent a great day out , we cruised there on a ferry up the Brisbane river (take sunblock, and ideally a few coldies).
If you can find a hire shop, there’s a path along either side of the river that’s is good for cycling or rollerblading.
If you like boats, crusing in the Whitsundays is heavenly.
Personally if i was going back, again i’d spend every day heading out to the Barrier reef for the diving.
J.
depends on what you are interested in.
South Bank houses the Queensland Art Gallery and the museum, you can go on a city cat ferry ride to see the city from the river and various other things in this area, all within walking distance of each other. You can get there by train or by car, I think all day weekend parking was less than $10 last time we went in. You can also walk there from the city centre over the pedestrian bridge from QUT Gardens Point campus. (all this will make sense if you have a street map)
You could drive around and look at beautiful Queensland colonial architecture if that was your interest, or there are the usual craft and trash and treasure markets all over the place on weekends.
You can take day trips to the Moreton Bay islands by ferry. You can visit the Gold Coast and look in awe at what development can do to strip of sand. While there you could visit Movie World, Dreamworld, Sea World and ride the water slides at Wet and Wild water park. You can visit the Sunshine Coast, and see Noosa Heads where the rich and famous go for holidays, you can also visit Underwaterworld at Mooloolaba and get your photo taken being kissed on the head by a New Zealand fur seal. After that you could visit Steve Irwins Australia Zoo and look at the crocodiles - crikey.
Lamington National Park in the Gold Coast hinterland is pretty spectacular, as is the Sunshine coast hinterland, little towns like Monteville and Maleny.
Or if you wanted a really quiet day on an peaceful relatively unspoiled piece of Qld (and you have access to a fishing rod), you could visit Bribie Island (where I live :D) and go for a trip up the Pumicestone passage (national park) and maybe see the dugongs and dolphins and umpteen varieties of weird and wonderful birds.
All of this within an hour or so drive from the city centre.
Now I think I will apply for a job with Qld tourism. 
I spent a weekend in Brisbane last May (November will be hot and I liked it. Nice place, laid back, terrible beer.
I was only in the city, but I thought the Botanic Gardens were pretty cool, but maybe that’s just the mangroves. Well, I think mangroves are totally entertaining.
There’s some alright museums and stuff on the south bank, and i guess you could go for a ride dow the river.
I dunno - I’m terrible at recommending things to do on holiday. When I go to a new city, I just wander around and have a great time without particularly doing anything.
One thing that I thought was really great (and unexplained) in Brisbane was in the midst of all these golden buildings was a quaint little red brick gothic church. It looked totally out of place.