Yes, it's another Australia itinerary thread! I've been rummaging through a bunch of them to garner some knowledge, and they were really helpful. Now I'd like to get some input from you wise FTers about my potential plans.

Background: I'm planning a trip to Australia for a conference in December. (Returning to the UK right before Christmas.) Initially was thinking I'd attempt to hit NZ and Oz, but a bit of research disabused me of that notion, since I'll only have about 17 days for tourism. Got business class seats on KE LHR-ICN-MEL on the way out and MH SYD-KUL-LHR on the return using my DL miles, so hopefully the jet lag problem won't be too severe.

After a good amount of consideration, I've come up with the following rough outline:

Day 1: Melbourne (arrive 0710)
Day 2: Melbourne
Days 3-7: Conference (Includes an afternoon excursion to Yarra Valley winery and Dandenong Ranges National Park on day 5.)
Days 8-9: Great Ocean Road area
Day 10: MEL-ADL (morning), Adelaide
Days 11-13: Kangaroo Island
Days 14-15: Indian Pacific (Gold service) from Adelaide to Sydney, spend a bit of time in Sydney, then SYD-CNS and drive to Port Douglas. (Don't want to book flight too close to train arrival in case the train is delayed for some reason, hence a bit of time to kill in Sydney.)
Days 16-19: Port Douglas area (Great Barrier Reef, Daintree)
Day 20: Drive to Cairns, fly CNS-SYD.
Days 21-22: Sydney
Day 23: Sydney morning, fly out at 15:40

I'm approaching this with an "I'll be back" attitude and aiming to spend time taking in scenery and wildlife, with a bit of city time included. (I'm sure I could spend way more time in Sydney, for instance, but if I'm coming back, routing via SYD is almost surely going to be part of the plan.) I thought about including Uluru, but the heat of December combined with costs and train schedules (I'd want to do the Ghan either ADL-ASP or ASP-ADL) made it a bit impractical. Even if it did fit in, I think it would contribute too much to the "If this is Tuesday, it must be Belgium" syndrome I want to avoid.

Any general thoughts would be greatly appreciated, but here are some specific questions:

(1) Great Ocean Road area: Recommendations for the area, other than the drive? It sounds like a lovely area, so I'm thinking I'd like to stop to do a few miles of walking somewhere along the route. (Preferably a circular route or a route with a suggestion of how to get back to the car after completing it.) Should I try to get out of Melbourne the night of Day 7 (conference ends around 1600) or just leave on the morning of Day 8? Since MEL-ADL is frequent, I figured it'd be easier to take one of the first flights on Day 10 so that I don't have to rush back on Day 9 to catch a flight. (Planning on the DJ Airpass, since I can get the three flights I want for under $400 with a bag included and some flexibility in case I want/need to reshuffle plans between now and December. Seems like a better option than hunting for a JQ sale for the next few months, as I can not worry about the air travel aspect.)

(2) Kangaroo Island: Does it make sense to spend the night in Adelaide before heading over to the island (say I get to ADL around 0900) or would it be more productive to make the crossing on the night of day 10 so that I cut out transit time on the morning of day 11? Is there a consensus on if flying or taking the ferry over is better? Will I want a rental car on the island, and if so, can I rent it on the island or will I have to rent in Adelaide and take it over on the ferry? Thoughts on exploring on my own vs. a tour?

(3) Port Douglas: I guess first, the topic must be weather. I understand that I'm headed to the tropics in late spring/early summer. However, given that I'm coming from England and heading to the northern US shortly after returning from the Southern Hemisphere, I think I could do with some heat and humidity. Just wanted thoughts on if I'm sorely mistaken in this regard and should consider somewhere else. I've read up on stinger season, and it seems like it will be stinger season but that's not a reason to avoid the area, just to take appropriate precautions. My thoughts on what to do are some snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, walking in the Daintree, and a bit of beach time (not too much of that, as my skin has two modes---pasty white and bright red). Will I be really upset with myself if I don't try diving? Seems like a major commitment of time/money for a first trip to the area, so given that I'm not spending a full week there, I'm inclined to give it a pass this time.

(4) Sydney: There are a couple of reasonable DJ flight times for CNS-SYD, so there are a few options for the day I'm making the flight. I could spend the morning/early afternoon in Port Douglas and drive to CNS just in time for the flight; I could drive to Cairns in the morning, explore Cairns a bit, and then fly to SYD; or I could drive to CNS in the morning and take an earlier flight to give a bit more time in SYD. Thoughts?

I'm not terribly worried about figuring out ahead of time what to do in Melbourne, Adelaide, or Sydney, as I tend to wing it when it comes to visiting cities. (I'll probably plan ahead a bit more than that.) Anything interesting that's not on the list of obvious things to do or things that are on the "must do" lists that are overrated? (I've already read enough to know that instead of paying through the nose for a harbour cruise in Sydney, I should just take a couple boats that a transit pass covers.)

Accommodation: Open to suggestions here, particularly for Kangaroo Island, since I'm not sure where the best area to stay would be. My inclination there would be a B&B rather than something on the high end. Leaning toward using some points in cities or Port Douglas. I've got just shy of 14,000 HHonors points, which don't go very far, but I have over 50,000 MR points that can be transferred (PC=1:1, HH=1:1.5, SPG=1:0.333) and will soon have 50,000+ Chase Sapphire points available for transfer (PC=1:1, Marriott=1:1, Hyatt=1:1) as well. I'll probably be back with more specific lodging questions once I'm confident I'm not going to mess with the itinerary too much.

Thanks in advance for any input, thoughts, opinions, etc. you have to share!