Hi there.

Best time would be after New Year and before March when it will be getting cooler in Melbourne.

Cheapest after New Year.

We used Aus Travel - no problems. For stopovers which they arranged, SIngapore on the way out for 2 days and L.A. on way back for the same, expensive, but worth every penny for the experience - and not over the top for the total cost.

You can use internal flights using Virgin BLue or Jetstar if you know the dates you are travelling within Oz. Tickets from $1!! This weeks sales are from $49.

Money - Think of a figure then double it. Beer at $5 a stubby, surf and turf £30 and $1.50 exchange rate says it all.

Join a club when you get there, it makes life and living a lot cheaper - up to 20% discount in some clubs.

Hope this helps.

Parky

Is it best to visit Melbourne and then travel to Sydney and back or visa versa?

IMO: It makes no difference, we flew down to Melbourne from Sydney and back, I booked the flights in an Internet cafe in Sydney on the 10th January 2011 and we flew down a few days later, we used Jetstar, which is a basic no-frills carrier and we had hand luggage only, and looking at my Mastercard statement, the daytime return flights for both of us cost £249.

Be careful if you use Jetstar because they use both airports in Melbourne ( Melbourne International and Avalon) Avalon is about 55 kms from the city and basically it's a glorified hut in the middle of nowhere, but it was lovely.
There is an excellent bus service from the main Southern Cross Station in Melbourne to Avalon (I think it's a bus every hour) which cost £35 for both of us (based on the exchange rate at the time and the Mastercard statement).
If you land at the International airport in Melbourne, again there is an excellent bus service that goes from the airport to the Southern Cross Station....I can't remember the price, it can't have been expensive, otherwise it would have made me remember. lol

We were based in a suburb of Sydney (Clovelly) and it's approx 25mins in a taxi to Sydney Kingsford airport, so we just got a taxi both ways, approx $ 38/40 each trip.
One thing I was told by more than one person, unlike the UK where you can drop on a bargain by departing within a day or two........In OZ it's the other way around and the nearer the date you want to fly, the higher the price goes up.

Getting to/from Melbourne or to/from Sydney is relatively easy, for internal flights you have to be there 1 hour before departure, although I allowed another 20 minutes extra and the flight is only 1½ hours long, which means by the time you're up, it's time to come back down.

Money? Like Parky has said, think of figure and then double it....Australia is not cheap.!

Sanji

Definetely book your internal flights asap as they get more expensive nearer the time - going to do ours when we have decided our itinary for December and January. Looked this week and they are $88 return.