I have tickets for my family of 4 (kids age 17 and 12) for next June, arriving in Sydney and leaving from Melbourne, 15 days in country. I'm assuming it will take a full day to recover from the long flight, so 14 days total. Right now, I'm thinking of splitting time as follows. Flights would be early morning/evening, so each of these may be shaved by a few hours/half a day.

- Sydney - 5 days, flying out in the evening, so 4 full days, plus morning to 3p or so

- Brisbane - 2 days, after flying in the previous night and flying out the following morning, so 2 full days

- Cairns - 3 days, flying in one morning, out one evening, so noon-end of day one day, one full day, morning to mid-afternoon 3rd day

- Melbourne - 4 full days.

The flight out of Cairns could move to the next morning, so 2 full days in Cairns (plus 1/2 day on arrival), and then 1/2 day plus 3 full days in Melbourne.

An option is eliminating one city, but it's probably the only time we'll be there. I've also looked at Alice Springs or Uluru, but I'm not sure they are worth the flights for a short stay.

Interests are natural sights, animals, mature kids stuff, architecture/art, etc. No interest in food, wine, kiddie parks, theatre.

Thoughts/comments?
Thanks