Going on vacation in Brisbane Australia, what can a family of five do to have fun?

Question

3 children ages 10, 12, and 15. We will be their in May of 2009 and part of June.

Answer 1

there are heaps of things to do there, no matter where you are travelling to go in to a visitor centre, that is what they are there for to talk to tourists, give you brochures and ideas of what you can do

Answer 2

Take them to Australia Zoo, Gold Coast Theme Parks (Movie World, Wet n Wild and Dreamworld are the best), go to the beach.... anything really!  What do you enjoy or what are you interested in?  Have a look at this site for some ideas... http://www.ourbrisbane.com/see-and-do

Answer 3

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

City Cats (river ferry)

New Farm Park

City Botanical Gardens

Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens / Planeterium (bottom)

Mt Coot-tha lookout (top)

Roma St Parklands

Southbank Parklands

Queensland Museum

Queensland Art Gallery

Museum of Brisbane / City Hall (go up the clock tower)

St Helena's Island (old gaol island)

Stradbroke Island

Moreton Island

Gold Coast area (~1 hour from south Brisbane)

beaches

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary (day / night)

Lamington National Park - O'Reilly's or Binna Burra

Natural Bridge National Park

Mt Tamborine

any of the theme parks

Sunshine Coast (about the same to the north)

beaches

Underwater World

Australia Zoo

Maleny and other towns

West

Jondaryan Woolshed

lots of country towns

Answer 4

for free  southbank museum  many  things happen in centre of brisbane  and not far from gold and sunshine coast has trains go everywhere go to brissie  city council web site for more info

Answer 5

In Brisbane itself, have a wander along the South Bank area.  There are restaurants, museums, art galleries etc and markets at weekends.  The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is good (and much better value than the Australia Zoo ripoff).

The Gold Coast theme parks - Wonderland, Seaworld, Movieworld and (if you are cold resistant) Wet 'n' Wild are perfect for your kids' ages and about an hour south out of Brisbane.  Australia Zoo is to the north at Beerwah but I think it is a grossly overpriced ripoff.  You also have Noosa on the Sunshine Coast.  There are some other attractions at Maroochydore.  On Saturdays and Wednesdays Eumundi Markets are worth a look - combiine that with your trip to Noosa as they are quite close.