Some low-cost suggestions: 1. Paint your paling fence mid-tone grey to charcoal (Weather shield) as a contrasting backdrop for a climber. 2. To re-orient your garden away from the square, plant the corner with an advanced native species shrub or small tree as a beautiful feature (e.g. native hibiscus, perfect for your climate, or a blueberry Ash, or a Wattle ). 3. Plant out an attractive climber- say an allamanda, or stephanotis for fragrance, or a fast growing flowering native climber such as diplodenia (which comes in many colours and is fast-growing; careful not to get something that will pull your fence down! White or blue hardenbergias are a native wisteria which could look beautiful along the paling fence). Simple matter of wiring up a couple of horizontals mid way up fence to get them up and over (big screws and steel wire). 4. Use the brick low wall as a base for raising its height by half a metre with small sandstone blocks (you can often get these as offcuts very cheaply from a local quarry) or secondhand bricks (which are very attractive cleaned and recycled). 5. Plan some kind of feature for the middle of your low stone wall at the rear - say an arch over which you could grow a romantic climber (see above, or a warm climate rose, a potato vine, or a native Sollya). 6. In process of raising the rear wall, you could use left over stone or brick to pave a two-metre base for a garden bench (either sleepers fixed to low wall or purchase a nice big hardwood garden bench from Bunnings ), OR whatever you are inspired to create as a place to sit and dream! 7. Dig garden beds two metres deep to run from each side of your feature to the boundaries and plant up with lovely things. 8. Why not run a narrow raised garden bed waist high (same sleeper delivery) along the paling fence boundary for ease of planting and picking swell as visual interest? 8. Then stand back and colour in the remainder….maybe a big round stand of acacia cognatas of various sizes somewhere in the middle of the lawn…perhaps a westringia or two clumped here and there ...maybe a set of stepping stones to curve it's way to your backdoor!!! Hope helpful if only to get the ideas going! Good luck!

gorgeous location ..consider wide grassed ramps to criss cross the slope diagonally from top to bottom, 1.5m+ plus wide paths will allow for easy mowing and two people to walk side by side...Tube stock is so much better for big areas needing multiple plants and you'll get better results quicker than the more expensive bigger plants ...use mass plantings of the same species like Correas and Westringeas... we had great success stabilizing slopes with a variety of Casuarinas suitable for the local area and fast growing wattles were good to create quick windbreaks while other trees and shrubs became established..(the wattles are short lived and gaps left when they go are filled in by other maturing plants) buying multiple tube stock we were able to economise with deals that included the plants, labour for planting and tree guards for orders of hundreds ..digging trenches (as apposed to single holes) and planting closer together, adding drip irrigation, mulching heavily and using tree guards for shelter and to prevent drying out and/or fences to keep out kangaroos will also help... keep the areas close to the house free of shrubs and garden beds and include wide mown paths as snakes are usually happier to stay in the rockeries and shrubs, don't feed pets outside to attract mice and snakes and, given a suitable area, a dam is always a bonus to create a destination for walking around the garden and giving wildlife their own space and, as a welcome surprise, we found that bulbs and irises introduced some colour in Spring and Autumn and propagation from a few parents plants quickly expanded into mass plantings..happy gardeniing

You don't mention where in Australia you are or which side of the house faces North this information will mostly determine what you can grow and where. Your block isn't small at all. In landscaping terms it's enormous and will cost a lot of money to put in a nice garden. As a starter..... The facade of your house is imposing, almost out of scale with the neighbours. I believe you will benefit from a medium sized deciduoos tree out the front behind the letterbox to soften the area between your home and your neighbours. Putting it on that side will frame the house nicely and balance the enormous scale of it. Something like a gingko would be lovely. But you need to be in temperate or cold zone for that one. Also the lawned slope is not helping the home sit into the landscape. I would go large boulders and a rockery across this part, not a fence nor retaining wall. Your home is already strongly geometric, a naturalistic strip will work wonders to bed it into the neighbourhood. If you can't stand the look of boulders then gabions are an alternative that look very modern and smart, especially if interspersed with tall ornamental grasses. There are many creeping conifers you can get that will grow in many climates. Once established they need no care but can look amazing. The easiest way to work out a cohesive scheme is to zone the yard into outdoor rooms. This is exactly what landscape designers do. So rather than going well I want a deck here, a bush there and lets just chuck some grasses in here. You end up with well defined area's that each have a purpose and a particular style, rather than random shrubbery dotted about the place. you'll need to cruise the internet a bit to find some landscaping you like. No-one here can guess what modern with character means to you. Does it mean tall strappy things, cacti, grasses? Hedges? It's easier if you can find a general style of garden you like, such as Balinese, Japanese, South Western, tropical etc. Then good old Google can show you every possible version of that from traditional right through to edgy modern versions. Typically anywhere in your yard that is going to get full sun all day will be unbearably hot in summer, you will want some shade there, but probably also want it sunny in winter (depending on where you are). This is where you need to plant deciduous vines or trees rather than evergreens. In terms of your access to the clothesline, the least expensive option will be a gravel path down that side of the house. You can lay it yourself and it only needs some lumber to define the edges and keep the gravel from spreading all over the yard. That won't be any good for dragging wheelie bins over though. You will also need to spend a weekend watching the shadows over the yard and seeing how far they stretch and at what times of the day. Any plant labelled 'full sun' needs a minimum of 6hrs of direct sunlight a day. Part shade plants need 3-4 and usually do better with morning sun and afternoon shade situations. And then there is the tiny group of plants known as 'full shade', don't be fooled. Most of them still need several hours of dappled light. There are really only a handful of plants that can survive full shade proper, so these area's of the yard are better off paved with a container filled with something known to be unkillable like clyvia.

@bigreader thanks for your comments. I think we may as well forget the retaining wall anyway! That's not going to be for a good number of years yet! I'm inclined to keep the top hedge as it flows on from the rest of the hedge bordering the lawn (see image below) on the top bank. But the bottom line of hedges get too much water so would be happy to replace them. With the tree, what height are you suggesting under? I am wondering if it would it be too close to the tree on the other side of the path? There is also the tree to the far left of the garden bed? Would some larger plants be more suited to here like a QLD Spear Lily with a few different types of smaller plants as you suggest to fill out the garden bed? But what would you suggest as a border/edging for the front of the garden bed? Rocks or a hardy wet soil loving plant?