I personally think the cladding would look nice and be the easiest to maintain. We also live on the Gold Coast and have a brick house that has been rendered (not by us) and, to be honest, it is not particularly low maintenance (if you want it to stay looking good that is). It is prone to leaching which leaves ugly stains so regularly needs retouching with the paintbrush. It can also develop small cracks in the render due to temperature change and movement. However, the most worrying thing for us is with regards to termites. If you render over your brick on the lower half of your house, it is highly unlikely you will see the telltale "mud" they leave that indicates they are trying to gain access into your house (they climb up in between the render and the brickwork). I would be trying to keep the exposed bricks in preference to rendering over them, particularly if you have a garden bed up against the house anywhere.

The weatherboard look suits so stay with that but maybe a recladd in an FC Weatherboard. Have a look at Scyon Linea. Which is a high performance version of Fibro Cement. Also use some architraves around windows and doors. A repaint will make a big change. I'm not a fan of blue blue I'm more a grey so look at 'Windspray' or 'Timeless Grey'. Paint the new architraves in white or 'Shale Grey'. One other change I would make is landscaping. Have a professional do a design for you this where you'll really make the property your own.

This is the inside of the house. The bottom photo is the inside of that extension. The House is a Yellowy Creamy colour that is very dated and we want to change to a more neutral off white at a later date. I did think that a white or off white for the outside might look a bit too white and washed out with the white Brick. The Brick does have like charcoal flecks through it. So maybe that colour could be good to coordinate with.

I love the blue but would go white. Wondering if it would go out of style quick, been very popular for ages in scandi/Nordic design, looks timeless