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Hi Roger, With the pleached trees, I think your underplanting amps up the tropical look especially if you go with a magnolia that have the dark green upper leave and the bronze underside. You could just go for banana or palms - personally I think you might be right about the clumping bamboo becoming a bit dense. Regarding your 400mm retaining wall - citrus are shallow rooted and tend to have a root system that goes out to their drip line. Maybe if you put it in a corner you can use the corner to espalier it in conjunction with staking it to get upper stablility but I'm not sure how it'd go with the roots - but give it a go at $30-50 depending upon size it's not an huge amount if it doesn't do well - just dig it up (just watch the thorns) and give it to a friend - check out Daileys for varieties and maybe get in touch and see what they think, they might do them on a dwarf root stock - I've found them to be helpful in the past. i'd be reluctant to underplant any kind of citrus though - as they are shallow feeders.

I'm doing the same thing! You actually don't have too much to do. What I'd do is: -paint: in lounge paint under chair rail white and above a deeper colour like grey. White ceiling and features. You could do the wooden details above hallway in any colour really -renovate kitchen - there's too much wood and the peninsula bench thing is a bit out dated. Even just painting the cabinets would update it heaps if you only have a small budget -fix that fireplace (it looks a bit 80's - go for 1920's/30's/Art Deco/Victorian era styled fireplaces. Will make a much more character filled fire place) -the curtains need removing or updating. They look to cheap for such a grand looking place. Shutters would be perfect, but if you don't like them, get some grand looking curtains that are hung from or close to the ceiling. -Landscaping: use "Singapore white" evergreen frangipanis (look high end resort with glossy foliage and don't drop leaves as soon), *pandanus trees, and under plant with gardenias, Ixoras (prince or orange, prince of gold etc) corylines, xanadus, and dwarf frangipanis like "petite pink" which are the size of a small shrub. Do NOT put bird of paradise, yukkas or any other palm tree by your pool as their roots will destroy your pool. ******Golden canes attract fruit bats (and their super stinky, paint stripping poop!) , so unless you plan on regularly trimming out the seed pods or enjoy cleaning up Hendra virus infected bat poop, rip them out and replace them with the above plants :-)

Composite decking gets very very hot in the summer sun, so I would definitely steer away from that- I know it looks good, but there are a number of beautiful Aussie hardwoods and gums that would look amazing and could 'float' over top of the coping with that modern serviceable decking look. Some well thought out tiling could also look good- but the heat will still be a big consideration. Remember metals in natural stones and plastics heat up in radiant sun, whereas timber tends to just warm slightly and not get 'burny' hot.