I have miles of decking at two houses. All timber when put in the Australian sun will suffer. When building our beach house we decided to go for Spotted Gum and let it grey. Why fight it? We applied Cutek, and will on a regular basis. At our main house we have lots of Merabu or Quilla. Will not grey the same, and leaches lots of red stain. Cheap, but would not use again. What ever you use, use a good quality oil that seeps deep into the wood not a traditional stain/or top finishing product.

Hey Paul, check out a place called ecooutdoors.com.au for inspiration. I'm not sure if they're up your way but I'm sure you could get materials shipped. They have such a beautiful store with brilliant ideas. I'd be considering a stone that is cool under foot on hot Brisbane days and at least 30mm thick. You have an oval-ish shaped pool so you might consider a small coping stone to replace the brick then move on to a larger stone instead of the dated pebble, maybe a 'cush' limestone or go a bit glam and do a herringbone pattern with the right stone. Good Luck.

We are almost done - some metal artwork and filter box to go before planting. Thought you all might like to see what we ended up doing…. Pool & tiles by pool company, everything else done by ourselves. We are extremely happy with the waterline tile colour - they show up differently all times of the day which is a lovely surprise. Ezarri Glass Mozaic waterline: Space Capricorn Capping Travertine

Having undergone the same process in the past 12 months (and discovering that the entire cost can be very expensive), I'd suggest bluestone pavers for the concrete edge with a rounded coping (edge), merbau decking to fence and use the same material for retaining walls. Glass fencing is the trend but you'd get away with the cheaper option of metal fencing plus less cleaning! For plants, consider the splash zone and pool water type (salt or chlorine?) as well as spreading of roots (some bamboos are renowned for damaging pools and plumbing!) and leaf litter in/around the pool. Unfortunately unless you've got carpentry and paving skills, it will cost you. I did the planting myself but was ~$15k for smaller area but all bluestone + glass fencing for a 9x4m pool in Melbourne. Good luck with your choices - it makes a huge difference to the enjoyment of the pool to finish it off properly :-)