We spent a week in Brisbane in early November. During the weekend, we went to Movie World, Dream World and Sea World. My girl (3.5 years old are so happy and excited). When my husband attended the meeting during the weekdays, I brought my girl to different parks (South Parkland, Bontanic Garden, so many ....), took a ride in side the park, have lunch buffet on the sea cruises, shopping at Queen's Street Mall.
We stayed at Sheraton Hotel which is conveniently located on top of the central railway station. We took almost an hour to take the train from Brisbane to the sea world, movie world, dream world. If you are interested in Gold Coast, it will take around 1.5 hours. If you are pizza-lovers, there's a restaurant inside this hotel : 'Someplace else', No. 1 pizza, you must have a try.
Remember, if your kid is still young, you should bring along with you a neck rest, so that he/she can fix the neck and properly sleep for the 10 hours flying journey.
You can visit the website for more details :
www.australia.com
www.frommers.com
If you drive the car, there's no need to join local tour.
Besides, just within the city centre, I think it is convenient to travel by public transport.
For seafood, if you don't require romantic / stylish atmosphere like the Rocks or Opera House/Harbour view, I think the Fish Market is the best and cheapest place (you can easily reach there by monorail). For seafood in Chinese way of cooking, you need to go to China town.
Other places to go (Greater Sydney) --- Bondi, Blue Mountain, Hunter Valley