The Little Black Shack
An eco-friendly restoration turns a ramshackle shack into a magical seaside getaway in Australia.
In 2013, when Jamie Kwong and his wife Ingrid saw the "for sale" sign go up outside an old fisherman’s shack near their house, the two jumped at the opportunity. After all, the crooked little cottage wasn’t just any old beach property—Jamie first spotted it in a television commercial during the early 80s. Once the couple inadvertently discovered that the shack lay just across the bay from their home in Palm Beach, Australia, the modest fisherman dwelling continued to pique their curiosity for years to come.
The shack is only accessible via two ways: taking a boat across Pittwater Bay or hiking through the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.
A crooked little fisherman cottage gets a new lease on life in the hands of owners Jamie Kwong and his wife, Ingrid, who renovate the seaside shack with an eco-friendly approach that includes recycled and repurposed materials wherever possible. Located across the bay from Australia’s Palm Beach, the Little Black Shack has been made available to rent for your next dream vacation getaway.
Rainwater is harvested for bathing and washing, while greywater is reused for irrigating the garden.
The shack is decorated with found and secondhand treasures from around the world. If the couple couldn’t find an item secondhand, they decided to make it themselves.
Sea breezes keep The Little Black Shack cool in summer, while a hand-built sandstone fireplace warms the property in winter.
- Lawns, Gardens & Landscapes / Troy Bendeich
- Luisa Brimble