The wharf at Pinkenba is still there, but mostly used for bulk cargoes. All the wharf areas closer to the city have been gentrified, as you feared.

If you get across the bay to Tangalooma on Moreton Island, you can still see a lot of the old flensing works from the whaling of the 1950s and early 1960s. Story - A few of us did some Harry Robertson songs at a concert here a couple of years ago. Afterwards a woman came up to me and said that the songs reminded her of being taken to Tangalooma when she was a child, and she could smell it again. It nearly made her sick in the middle of the concert. Now, that's real singing for you!

It will probably be too late for any whale watching at that time of year, unfortunately - the migration usually passes by in September.

I take it you're flying to Port Douglas? It's 1200 miles from Brisbane, 1800 from Sydney. Don't even think what that is in kilometres.