AusBonsai

Nice Raging Bull, for sure gives some good inspiration.
I’m thinking of going option 3 with the left hand red branch as the new leader together with option 4 and then ramifying from there.

Raging Bull wrote: ↑February 16th, 2020, 7:57 pm Hi Thorne,
Here are a couple of pics I took near Byron Bay a couple of days ago. Theses figs grow abundantly up here. They may give you some ideas re shaping/styling, and I thought the nebari on them is fantastic.
Cheers, Frank.DSC_0004e.JPGDSC_0005e.JPG

Hey Frank,

Is that flood water to just a natural pond/lake ... whatever, they are two beautiful trees; just magnificent!

Cheers for posting.

Mark

That's flood water. There are numerous new temporary lakes on the plain between the ocean and the Dividing Range. It's great to see all that water soaking in with everything lush and green. The only downside is that we have to carry a brick in each hand so the mozzies don't carry us away.

Option 3 appears to flow better i think. The tall front stem comes from an awkward spot at that bend and wills top eyes from flowing up that trunk.
Always better to have all branches separating at different levels rather than having side and back branch growing from the same place. Sometimes inevitable but avoid if possible.
Option 1 is possible but coming from the rear may not flow as well and the stronger branch should be useful.

Your plan for the taller trunk looks OK from here.

Thanks for the advice shibui. I think I’ll go ahead with it. The beauty of figs obviously if it doesn’t work then cut off and start again haha