DianneH68

I spent a few weeks in July/Aug this year in various parts of Queensland and the weather can be very mixed - you probably have equal days of warm sunshine and cool/wet.
Definitely head further north if possible but bear in mind that it will still be cool at night and might rain, so for that reason I'd probably avoid the islands.
If it rains for a couple of days you'll be stuck there with nothing to do which won't be much fun for the young girls.
If you base yourself somewhere around Cairns or a bit further north you can snorkel/ scuba dive on the Barrier Reef and visit Kuranda, the 'Village in the Rainforest' (can go by skyrail or scenic railway). Look here for more details: http://www.queenslandholidays.com.au...nd/kuranda.cfm or http://www.kuranda.au.com/?GoogleadwordsKuranda

You can do day trips to Port Douglas and/or Cape Tribulation, Mission Beach, the Tjapukai Aboriginal Culture Park http://www.tjapukai.com.au/index.html plus there are loads of other beaches nearby.

It's really nice up there but it all depends on what you're after really.
Good luck

steve99

North from Cairns would be the best bet, Palm Cove and Port Douglas would be my choices, The Outrigger in both are well located and have good facilities. There's plenty of nice places to eat/drink in both places, you can be as relaxed or as active as you want, the weather should be high 20's with no humidity. We stayed in both resorts in June and they've both really developed in the last 3 or 4 years since we last visited (developed in a nice way .
Steve

Bordy

Thanks all, I'll start looking at places around Port Douglas on the net.

Mrs DB, he actually lives close to Red Square in Moscow so its even colder than Scotland.

Vanessa

A few people have said Hamilton Island. My hubbie went there the other weekend and whilst he said it was stunning he said that the food was terrible. He was on a conference and sometimes the food can be mediocre at this type of event but he said even the food they ordered separately was not very poor for what they charged.

The Sheraton Mirage in Port Douglas is a super hotel (so says the Hubbie) however he hasn't been there for several years. We are going to Sebel Reef at Palm Cove for New Year and that is suppose to be very good but mixed reviews on trip advisor.