We are planning a trip to Australia towards the end of this year. Tentative dates: 17th December till 10th January. Purpose of the trip is to visit our son and his family, who live in Canberra, teach my (then) 2.5 year old grandson some naughty words, etc. Family stuff. Which means that within a week I'll be climbing walls. And in any case, we do have friends we'd like to visit in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We'll probably do the first 2 by car from ACT, and the other 2 by plane.

John Thompson of Cloudstreet was telling us about Woodford (?) festival in Queensland. And I'd like to also visit folk clubs in the aforementioned cities - perhaps even get some gigs organised there?

I am looking for
a) advice - about where to go, which clubs are best, what places might be closed during Xmas (or even for the summer) etc
b) contacts for opportunities to meet with Mudcatters there
c) contacts for me to solicit spots or gigs at clubs (I can send them my standard promo pack of 1-pager plus demo CD).

Any help, folks?