The Humble Beach Shack, Why?

Many people love the Mornington Peninsula, the beaches, the people, the wine, the fruit and many good things. But what is one of the hidden DNAs behind all these, and your childhood beach memories?

To be honest, like many I migrated to Melbourne as a teenager, I had never built sand castles along our bay beaches. But there was an instant charm, unmistakably recognised and felt as I wonder around this neighbourhood. More importantly, would my kids and fellow generation x, y, whoever, feel the same?

I can go on and on why did I leave a well paid office job, become an entrepreneur and start all these. This will be a good read to put you to sleep. But when we choose to start a holiday home business in Mornington Peninsula; besides the fact that we love this place, want to create a product and add value to here, where should we start ?

What kind of product should we develop?

Frankly I lived in many places around the world, I saw fancy Hollywood stars occupied Malibu mansions, I had stayed in Waikiki beach condos. I see none of these as the charm behind our beaches.

We spent 6 months looking up and down the peninsula, we saw holiday parks, golf course properties, farm houses and many more. In deciding the product we’d develop, we go back to the fundamentals, the old beach shacks.

Our original beach shack at Shirlow Ave Rye

“These simple, informal shacks are not showy. Made of lightweight, often salvaged materials, they were unobtrusive”, according to Melbourne architect Sally Draper.

Here we go, instead of some flashy tasteless box cutting homes, we bought ourselves a project, a big one indeed. Many of these fibro beach shacks are hardly utilised, old, falling apart. The panels are often barely held together by their paint, of the 50s colouring scheme. You can poke through with your fingers by just pressing lightly.

But we weren’t afraid.