Love Shacks
With its humble waterfront hideaways synonymous with happy times spent with those you love, Tassie does shacklife like nowhere else – especially during summer.
It’s the first week of summer in Sisters Beach on the north-western coast of lutruwita/Tasmania and all is quiet. The shacks lining the streets have their curtains pulled and only a handful of people toddle down to the sand each morning and afternoon.
In a few weeks’ time, eskies will be packed, relatives rallied, and the annual pilgrimage of Tassie locals will see its streets transformed. Cars will materialise on the grassy verge in front of each shack, kids will ride their bikes down the sleepy streets, and the smell of sunscreen will linger in the air.
I try to imagine the scene as I sit with a sundowner under the ancient pine tree, in the front yard of Arku House (arkuhouse.com.au). The white A-frame is perched right on the dunes with the beach out front and the creek running past its side; its tannin-rich waters whispering of off-grid adventure. A rope swing dangles from a paperbark tree.
Built in the ‘60s, Arku has been tinkered with over time and was completely renovated inside by Sydney-based owners, Emma Woods and Charlie Whittaker-Smith in 2022. While inside it’s all Venetian plaster walls and Mediterranean-inspired curves, the humble exterior stands as a beacon of summer to the generations who have played in its shadow. It’s an icon, as etched in the memories of those who grew up holidaying here as the old dirt road in and the hot crispy potato cakes from the local shop.
While they’re found in other states – usually in all-but-forgotten frontier towns – the shack is as quintessentially Tasmanian as Blundstones and scallop pies.
They started sprouting up in post-war years, when land was cheap – or in some cases, free. Often cobbled together with scrap materials, many had rudimentary amenities – electricity and plumbing were a luxury – and they were filled with hand-me-down furniture and mismatched crockery. The onus was on being outside, enjoying the natural environment, so it didn’t matter too much what they were like inside. As long as you had a place to sleep and knew how to catch a few fish, you were living the dream.
>This story first appeared in Australian Traveller magazine Nov 2024. Continue reading on the PDF or online here.