Luke, I think Barbara is right on the money here. We have had Camellias on the Sydney North shore, on a sandstone slope with a water course constantly running beneath them (I think typical in Nth Shore areas). They were and still are a lush hedge. Also in Southern highlands, similar conditions but colder in winter of course. Secret in both places, the water gets away so they don't have wet feet! As Barbara says, test all your plants before watering, even with a metal spike of sorts. If it comes out damp, don't water! Sorry long winded but true

Hi quokkaz,,, how the devil are you,, no not done anything to the bridge yet, we have had some major rain over the winter and large amounts of water have washed away one of my waterfall as well as damaging a second just under the bridge, so I need to repair these before I finish the bridge, we had some good weather last week so got around the garden and mowed the grass for the first time, now its turned very cold with a north wind with snow forecast in places, so will look at the waterfalls and bridge when i have tidied up the garden after winter

When my brothers and sisters and I were kids, we loved building forts in the woods behind our grandparents' properly. The fun and adventure was in cutting down small fir trees and branches and building them (lean-to style) ourselves. I realise this is a small area, but maybe if you provide a few supplies and let them use their imagination, they will build something that delights them.

"Macyjean where do you recommend the vertical feature go...? Yes trying to make sure trees aren’t too large they cause damage to the property via root system and/or branches or fruit/nectar falling on the roof/gutters/paving." Somewhere on the left, but start with hardscaping, driveway, draw in underground services, think about what sort of footpath you want. I agree that it might be well worthwhile to get a landscaper to draw up a plan. "Thinking bay leaf could be an option...?" I remember going on a garden tour of a property with a park-like garden featuring large trees and the guide pointed out the bay tree and said people don't realise how big those get. There might be dwarf varieties these days though? "With the secret garden if I go teddy bear magnolia how do I layer plants to give varying height and colour while spacing them out for future growth? Is there a rule of thumb with number of levels/layers?" Just my opinion but looking at your photo and for ease of maintenance I think the magnolia with an underplanting of lomandras or something like that would be plenty. I can also picture three layers with flowering shrubs in between but I think they'd need regular pruning to look good. Lomandras don't need much attention, it's recommended to cut them right back every few years to rejuvenate them but it isn't crucial, whereas if you're going for a certain look with shrubs and don't stay on top of the pruning they can look quite scrappy and if you prune too hard they can take a while to recover. "What’s the rule of thumb for spacing of plants?" I think there might be some kind of general rule of thumb based on mature width? But I'd base it on the plants you choose. The label sometimes recommends the spacing, or if not the growers' websites have more information.