Is the following possible??...
checkout 'core'
CORE / INTERFACE / corefile
CORE / APP / corefile
checkout 'plugin_1'
PLUGIN_1 / INTERFACE / PLUGIN_1 / pluginfile
PLUGIN_1 / APP / PLUGIN_1 / pluginfile
checkout 'plugin_2'
PLUGIN_2 / INTERFACE / PLUGIN_2 / pluginfile
PLUGIN_2 / APP / PLUGIN_2 / pluginfile
checkout 'core' + 'plugin_1' + 'plugin_2'
ALL / INTERFACE / corefile
ALL / INTERFACE / PLUGIN_1 / pluginfile
ALL / INTERFACE / PLUGIN_2 / pluginfile
ALL / APP / corefile
ALL / APP / PLUGIN_1 / pluginfile
ALL / APP / PLUGIN_2 / pluginfile
I see from the comments below that svn:externals is the answer, and I think I now have it working.