Thanks everyone for your further comments. No problem about it being an old post, always nice to communicate with people about design solutions/problems. Jilly, I posted some photos on 1st January 2016, they appear further up in the post. Garden Beet Pty Ltd, and Morel Construction Ltd, both of your solutions look great, but our problem still remains the western Queensland sun which is pretty vicious on anything that will either wilt, fade or break down. It was quite a difficult challenge to come up with something that was affordable, workable and durable. I would love to have had plants because I believe they soften large "hard" exterior areas, but we have decided that we will do that with pots around the pool area. Still have that to do, even after all this time. :) Thanks everyone for re-igniting this chat. Jilly, hope you find something that works for you.

Hi! Thank you so much I had no idea! I just saw the picture on pintrest and I couldn't figure it out. Really appreciate that hopefully I can try and find out now

Rendering a house is an irreversible change, and FYI the spelling of my name is Eastern European - I'm named after my great grandmother, who was Polish and whose name was also spelled that way, so no, my spelling has not been modernised. How insular of you to assume it was. And even if it had been, I didn't choose my name - my parents did, as most people's parents did. You may not understand the heritage value of the midcentury, but that's exactly my point - in the 60s and 70s, no one understood Victorian and Edwardian houses had heritage value, so they vandalised them. These days, people like you don't understand the heritage value of the midcentury, so they rip it down or vandalise it. You're repeating history and you don't even know it.

It could be horsehair plaster. Plaster used to be re-inforced with horsehair, but it looks more like fibreglass strands. Horsehair matched the period of the original home, whereas fibreglass doesn't. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls