What a great space and big opportunity. Firstly, it looks as though your soil is fairly sandy and possibly hydrophobic soil - before you decide on actual plans start working at improving your soil so that you're setting yourself up for success (think about a good dose of organic matter, worm compost tea, organic aids like Natramin (a personal favourite of mine) that will help get your soil working with biodiversity, structure and creating a nutritional environment for plans and micro-organisms) and then think about going with natives as they're a bit hardier than cottage/tropical garden plants. Depending on your budget, you could pull out the fence all together or paint it a lighter colour. You could add a fence opening for pedestrian access further towards the middle and wind your path with steppers and gain a bit of privacy with arbours covered in climbing vines,. Don't hold back in putting in low growing plants in front of your fence either if you like (afterall your council ensure that you're responsible for it's maintenance). You could also soften the edge of the driveway using curving edging - taking away the harshness of the straight lines. I'd also look at doing something tall along the fence to balance the pencil pines on the driveway edge. Good luck!

I like the length of the lawn to the road - it makes your property look bigger The letterbox doesn't work with the period of the home - sorry I would remove the garden bed completely, allow the lawn to grow and then plant trees into the lawn - around 3 depending on the varieties Don't whipper snip at the base of the trees unless you know how to use a whipper snipper and don't use Round Up at the base of the trees - the constant use of glyphosate that is residual will kill the trees in time These comments are based on looking at the photo provided without seeing the site in person. The suggestions are based on a low-maintenance garden but you will need to take good care of the trees, otherwise poor specimens will drag down your property.

Your ideas sound great, you have a few mature trees, you could add textured sculptural foliage to highlight them, a water feature would look beautiful, a path to front door, instead of a straight path think large pavers in a staggered pattern to add a lovely different look, and a new modern letter box … gorgeous .. great house

Maybe you have to live with the benfits of planning for orientation before you really 'get it'? I did. In multiple houses we complained about the afternoon sun in summer but never thought further than that, blamed it on summer, and it was not until we lived in a house planned for orientation from the start that we understood. So it makes me sad to see discussion, this by no means the only one, where such an important easy maintenance-free feature of buildings is treated as an afterthought.