G'day Dave. I'll send you privately a Google Earth image of your house with the free
Queensland Globe overlay showing your boundaries and easements etc (there's a
NSW one available too in case anyone is interested). You need Google Earth Pro, which is free these days too.
Yellow lines are site boundaries, green shaded areas are easements. As a general rule, just keep building work inside your boundaries and out of easements.
That being said, I'd be recommending
against you putting in a pier. You mention you're out of work at moment, so assume money is tight. Why spend money on a pier when you have a tripod for your mount already? Time is free, which I reckon would be much better spent getting comfortable with alignment. That seems to be your hurdle, and it's an almost essential skill to learn to be comfortable with in astro-imaging.
It appears that you've been looking into Polemasters recently. I have one, and it does save time aligning... however... you have to be able see the SCP, and it doesn't sound like you can from your place - at least from backyard? So, again, if you're tight for money, I'd advise against getting one unless you can see SCP from where you're setting up. I still do a drift alignment after Polemaster anyway, just for confirmation/tweaking.
My advice, depending on which part of sky you want to shoot and the field of view from front/back yard, set up on a nightly basis in front yard, and maybe leave covered with tarp etc for few nights in back yard.
This time of year sucks to get a full clear night. Maybe set up in back yard and when no clouds, practise getting comfortable with drift aligning? Cover with tarp and play again the next night etc?