You could try a tabebuia, I have 4 in: T. chrysantha, covered in bright yellow tubular flowers early summer; T Rosea, a gorgeous pink though mine hasn't flowered yet; T. Argentea, perhaps the best all round of them all; mine's been in 8 years, is about 8 - 9 metres tall, has lovely corkish bark, produces yellow flowers and is a nice shape. You could also consider the Queensland bottle tree, Brachychiton rupestre, but that might be a bit slow growing for you, mine's been in 10 years and is only about 5 metres tall. That would be my choice and I also garden in the Northern Rivers NSW. (Terranora).

Hi
Thanks for your reply,
My fave would be the bottle tree but I fear we would be too wet for it. The only thing that has slowed the Paulonia is the feet feet.
I will hunt out a tabebuia to have a look (I don't recall noticing them). Would they have the tendency to spread into the forest?
I'm thinking about Hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel) as the size is right and wet not a problem. Just not sure how well they do this far north.
Thanks again
Carl

Cant help with the witch hazel, my bottle tree, despite this last more-than-usual wet season, is doing well. I garden just west of Tweed Heads on a bit over an acre. As for the Tababuia chrisantha, take a drive around in mid Decemeber and you can't help but notice the brilliant yellow flowering trees here and there. They do produce long, brown, seed pods after flowering but that's a small price for the beautiful show.
By the way, your profile indicates you garden in zone 4; if you're in the Northern Rivers area of NSW you must be in the mountains, the (coastal) zone here, based on the universal scale, is 9.5 to 10! Tababuia is a tropica, sem-tropical, species, they won't survive, I don't think, in a zone as low as 4!

By the way, here's a picture of my Tababuia chrisantha in flower taken about 2 seasons ago.