Ground Transportation
One of the things that has surprised us during our travels here in Australia is the cost of the ground transportation. We have relied mainly on taxis and public transport, but taxis are expensive and other than Sydney and Melbourne, public transport is not widespread or frequent. If we had to do our trip over, we would rent a car more often. The rental rates for cars are very affordable and driving on the left side of the road is not as scary as it sounds.
Sydney
A taxi ride from the airport to the CBD is about AUS$40-50 depending on the location of your hotel. If you want to take a train from the airport to Town Hall (the opposite side of the CBD from the Sydney Opera House), the cost is AUS$15/person, so if you are traveling with more than two people, you might as well take a taxi.
When you are in Sydney, you can walk, take the train or hop on a ferry from Circular Quay to get other places in Sydney.
Melbourne
We had friends who picked us up from the airport, but we did us public transport to get from the St. Kilda area to the CBD. You can purchase the tram cards at any convenience stores. The trams are overall fairly cheap, but slow. When we had a car, we had no trouble navigating most of the city.
Gold Coast
The airport in Gold Coast is a long ways from the hotels in Gold Coast and Surfer's Paradise and this is if you fly directly into the Gold Coast instead of Brisbane. Check with your hotel first about their parking rates, but nothing is really close, so there is not a lot that you can walk to depending on where you stay.
If you fly into or out of Brisbane, there is a train for AUD$25/person to take you from the airport to Gold Coast, but it is another AUD$50 to the hotels from the train station.
Whit Sundays
Be sure to book your ground transportation before you arrive. There are a couple of different shuttle services for about AUD$30/person. They pick you up from the Prosperpine airport and take you directly to your place of accomodation.
