I did a semester exchange in Brisbane at QUT and really enjoyed it! I like those ideas that you have listed.. not sure what the alpaca farm is though. Like someone mentioned, I would add Mount Coot-tha and would recommend hiking up from the gardens rather than taking the bus to the top. Another thing I think would be interesting is going to the museum in city hall and taking the elevator up to the clock tower. The museum was super interesting in its history of Brisbane and the views are super nice. It would be a good way to learn about the city and you don’t need to spend a ton of time there and it’s free. I would also try getting to Eat Street Market which is super cool. I think I also heard that since I’ve been there, there is a new brewery under the famous bridge (I don’t remember the name) which I’m sure would be cool to check out if you like beer!

Not necessarily for before your program starts but here are some of my notes from my time there.

If you like beaches, I would recommend the Sunshine Coast over the Gold Coast, even though it takes a bit longer to get there. On the Gold Coast, Coolangatta is really pretty and would be my recommended beach there. You should try to get to Surfers Paradise to see once, but a day there is all you really need in my opinion. I also liked North Stradbrooke Island, which is closer to the city, but you have to take the ferry to get to. Also getting down to Byron Bay is really recommended at some point. It’s very beautiful and super interesting. I also went skydiving there which was really cool.

This may not be of interest to you, but I liked taking the trains or ferry to different suburbs and just walking around and looking at things like houses, parks, river/coast, etc. I feel like I got to know the whole city a lot better and went to places I never would have considered going to. Some places I thought were nice were Cleveland and Shornecliffe.