Whatever you do never plant a gum! They have no place in suburban areas! The sooner the council realises that these trees kill people the better! We have had two gum trees fall on the back of our house now, one in 2012 and one in 2014. We are so lucky that myself, my husband, three children, three dogs, five Guinea pigs, two parrots and one bearded dragon were not injured. It's just a miracle not once but twice! I still don't know how we escaped unharmed. The gums do not have a stable root system and they grow very shallow, they get to the point where they just fall over. And the scary thing is they fall silently. They are not called 'Widow Makers' in the bush for no reason. I like the Tuckeroo tree, not sure of scientific name. They grow with a straight trunk and keep their foliage in a straight and symmetrical line along the bottom and grow hiding their branches. Essentially they look like a large mushroom. They are green all year too. I think they get to about 6 metre or ten if they have to reach for the sun.

Yes the eastern states have been copping it. Snow etc, I am not a fan of cold. In the west has not been as bad, just a bit of a whinger when I think how cold you guys have had it, even Brisbane. I am waiting for those new solar panels with battery storage capacity (tesla) to come down in price in the next few years, before we retire I would like to have them in and paid for.

I'd look at plumbing it in to your main line. To save oodles of money get a heap of quotes from plumbers for the whole thing, then get the price broken down into sections. If you can do all the manual work a good plumber will really work with you all the way. Find out exactly what piping and fixings you need, search around all local suppliers, even check gum tree, eBay buy bits & pieces as you can afford it. Once you have everything start digging! Your plumber should advise you on what heights, depths and specifications he needs, once done everything can be left exposed for inspection and connection. He'll love walking in going from section to section just putting it all together and certifying off and there's no reason why he wouldn't give you a great price:)

@ alchemy, I can see you've put allot of effort into your beautiful yard and pool and whist I agree that you will probably regret a deciduous tree, irrespective of it losing most of its leaves in a short period, it would be allot of work clearing that debris from your pool but I agree that you need to complete your yard with greenery. I think the ficafolia suggested by bigreader could look stunning but I have one in my yard (no pool) and the gumnuts this little tree of mine drops must be seen to be believed albeit they dont blow. A palm of course is one of the best trees due to its lack of debris and the tropical look it provides is always a winner, however, getting one fairly established would be the way as they don't grow super fast but the expense of such a tree could be quite prohibitive. I would seriously listen to advice offered by people with an outdoor pool as experience is the best teacher, so you must decide just how much work you want to give yourself over and above the normal workload simply having an outdoor pool and I'd strongly consider the suggestion Mel N offered of putting up a sun shade or sail initially and see how that works for you. Best of luck. Cheers, Barbara