Unspecified
Designers and architects have invaded an Aussie icon, Michael Gebicki writes.
The beach house has become a coat of many colours. What was once a humble fibro shack has mutated into a glam, architect-designed retreat laden with Scandinavian appliances and marble bathrooms. And when the wind kicks up and the weather turns sour and you discover that the resident Scrabble set is missing a few vital letters, a plasma TV with a DVD library is a fine option.
For the high-fashion version of the beach house, nowhere else does it quite like Byron Bay. Over the years, the town's glossy natural credentials - gorgeous beaches, dolphins that surf the waves and a hinterland of rainforests and volcanic peaks - have been buffed by style and money, and at the very apex of the town's rentable beach houses is Katz.
This is the beach house elevated to fashion statement - a sleek, breezy, five-bedroom villa with the ooh-la-la factor in abundance, from the lap pool to the 10-body spa to the two wall-mounted 106-centimetre plasma TVs with in-ceiling digital sound system. There's also a separate studio, which expands the house's sleeping capacity to 12, but the house can also be configured to sleep as few as just four, with the price scaled down accordingly.
There's also heaps of space here, which means that even with a full house you won't feel crowded. Katz fronts Main Beach and the groovy centre of Byron Bay is just a three-minute walk, - ideal for those times when you can't be bothered firing up the Katz espresso machine yourself.
Does the beach make you frisky? Make you want to bound out of bed and run, swim, hit the surf and come back to an ironperson breakfast? If this is you, Points South Cottages could be ideal. These two glass and timber cottages are located at Wongarra, just west of Apollo Bay, and close to one of Australia's surf sensations. For novices, there's a surf/kayak school that operates just down the road, and you'll want to pack your bike and your best lycra shorts, too.
Points South is owned by former cycling supremo Phil Anderson, who lives in the homestead high above the cottages and who'll be happy to give you a few pointers for your next attempt on the Tour de France. Designed by noted Melbourne architect Peter McIntyre, the two cottages are built in the style of a mountain hut, with grey cladding and a steep corrugated iron roof, each tucked away in its own private domain.
Step inside and you're in a spacious lounge room with a stone fireplace, a DVD and sound system. Off to one side is a neat and complete white and stainless steel kitchen - but it's the view that dazzles. One wall is floor-to-ceiling glass, with a well-padded alcove in one corner where you can curl up and watch the surf lay
icing across the beach below. Sliding glass doors open to a wide veranda with a barbecue at one side. There's only one bedroom, but a clever fold-down bed in the lounge room expands it to family-size accommodation. The bathroom has a deep spa bath with room for two.
The Great Ocean Road runs between the cottages and the coast, but it's just a two-minute stroll to a glorious and well-protected beach. Don't forget your pooch. Points South is pet friendly, so pack your citified hound.
Bruny is Tasmania's castaway island, a barefoot, balmy paradise of seals, Little Penguins and cold, clear water, and Bruny Beach House is perfectly in tune with the island's back-to-nature ways. Located at Dennes Point, at the northern tip of Bruny Island and about a 90-minute trip from Hobart if you time the Kettering Ferry
neatly, the two-bedroom house sleeps four.
The glass doors in the lounge open to a deck with water views, while another deck at the rear overlooks bushland. The water is 30 metres away at high tide, and there's a public tennis court about the same distance in the other direction.
What you're getting here is comfort and functionality rather than razzamatazz. The bathroom has a shower but no spa, and there's a TV and a modest collection of CDs, but there are lots of practical touches. Bring books, fishing rods, water toys and your favourite fish recipes and settle in for a week of idle joys. Like so many things about Bruny Island, the price tag at the beach house also comes from the fondly remembered past.
Cliff House is the sort of beach house you would never be allowed to build these days. Set on a headland on the north coast of Kangaroo Island, the house has Snellings Beach practically as its private domain, a half-kilometre of white sand frisked by a sea the colour of Windex.
The Mediterranean-inspired, three-bedroom villa makes a whimsical nod in the direction of Austen Powers. One of the bedrooms has an enormous circular bed that occupies the entire upper level of the turret at the side of the house. On the floor below is a conversation pit, padded with cushions, and at the front is a broad terrace overlooking the beach.
Although the house has a full-sized kitchen and a well-stocked larder, chances are you won't be doing much cooking. Cliff House comes with its own chef, the prodigiously talented Rachel Hannaford, who brings passion and spontaneity to the meals she prepares for guests, and whose family designed and built the house.
Among the possible venues for her evening feasts is a candlelit bower created within the limbs of a 150-year-old fig tree and a beach hut.
The beach retreat doesn't hibernate in winter. When it's cold and cheerless down south, troppo is the place to go, and Oak Beach Villa is the beach house at its tropical best. Tucked into a tiny enclave of about a dozen houses just south of Port Douglas, Oak Beach Villa has two bedrooms, one inside the house, the other jacked up treehouse style at one side, with its own ensuite bathroom and dressing room and glass louvres all around to let in the Coral Sea breezes. Both bedrooms are air-conditioned. There's heaps of lounging space, and at the front is a huge, shaded veranda with big columns and beams that frame views of the coconut palms at the front of the house.
At the back of the house is a rock-lined pool. There is a Smeg top for grilling ocean trout from the fish shop down the road, a DVD and two TVs, barbecue and full laundry. If you made use of the king-size divan in the lounge room the house would sleep six, but four is comfy. Cairns Airport is an hour's drive, Port Douglas 10 minutes.
When it came to designing the perfect beach house, Ron Roozen had a few natural advantages. A dedicated surfer as well as an artist, it was only to be expected that when he commissioned Sydney architect Dale Jones-Evans to design a beach house, the result would be dramatically different. Ron Roozen's Place is an ultra cool beach retreat.
Rising from sloping bushland above Prevelly Beach on Western Australia's Margaret River coastline, the house is stark and angular. Every room in the three-bedroom house has panoramic ocean views. There's also a huge outdoor deck and lounging space, and the open-plan kitchen/lounge/dining area with widescreen TV, CD and DVD player. The decor embraces the minimalist ethos, with a selection of Roozen's works on display. You can even have an in-house chef - not your average surf shack.
Trip notes
Bruny Beach House, Tasmania, from $135 per night. Phone 0419315626. www.brunybeachhouse.com.
Cliff House, South Australia, $850 a person a night. Phone (08) 8559 2248. www.life-time.com.au
Katz, NSW, from $1143 a night. Phone 0413 270 951.
www.byron-bay.com/katz.
Oak Beach Villa, Queensland, from $395 a night. Phone (07) 4099 1799. www.oakbeachvilla.com.au
Points South Cottages, Victoria, from $250 a night. Phone (03) 5237 0296. www.points-south.com.au.
Ron Roozen's Place, Western Australia, from $450-$650 per night (conditions apply). Phone 0407 479 004. www.ronroozen.com.au.
Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter
Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.