McConaughey off grid in Oz

How two Australian innovators forged an unlikely partnership – and strong friendship – with a Down Underloving Hollywood A-lister. David Mills reports

IT is customary, and expected, that every Hollywood celebrity who visits Australia will tell us how much they love the land Down Under. Stars with a new movie to push tell us they love us, and we lap it up, even if all they’ve seen is the tastefully bland interior of a five-star hotel room and a red carpet full of screaming fans (with maybe a spin on Sydney Harbour if they’re lucky). But that’s not the case with Matthew McConaughey.

The Oscar winner’s connection to Australia dates back to 1988 when he was an exchange student on the NSW Central Coast, and he filmed the movie Fool’s Gold here in 2007.

He’s experienced Australia at its most beautiful, having filmed in locales such as Port Douglas and Lizard Island, but he’s also seen us at our most ordinary and suburban.

His 1988 host family took him to World Expo ’88 in Brisbane, for example.

The Texan-born star has spoken of how Australia inspired his love of travel and the great outdoors, which makes him the perfect celebrity partner for a Sydney start-up that’s putting busy city types back in touch with the natural settings that help restore sanity and perspective.

Unyoked, conceived by twins Chris and Cam Grant, 32, provides tiny cabins in remote (but not too remote) wilderness for short stays.

Solar-powered, off-grid and eco-friendly, the cabins are trailered in to secret locations where guests will not be bothered by roads, buildings, power lines and – best of all – other people.

The company has 11 cabins so far, all within 2½ hours’ drive from Sydney and Melbourne, meaning they’re easily reachable for even a weeknight stay.

“Wilderness on demand,” is how they describe it.

“Cam and I are not hoteliers; what we wanted to offer people was a gateway to the outdoors,” says Chris. “We wanted to provide a basic base. It’s not a hotel, it’s closer to a cabin you stumble across in the woods or a campsite.”

The philosophy, Cam says, is to be “in the landscape, not on it”. “It’s meant to be as minimal and light a footprint as possible, and as close to carbon neutral as we possibly can,” he says. “It’s built on wheels so we can get into these really cool areas and move them out without damaging the environment. They’re built small on purpose so it forces you to focus on what’s essential.”

And for those wondering: yes, toilets are included, as are rainwater showers.

While there are other companies in the same space, Unyoked’s success brought them to the attention of McConaughey, who was searching for innovators to profile with his work as brand ambassador for Wild Turkey.

The True Detective star has been creative director for the label since 2016 and debuted his own bourbon last year.

McConaughey flew the Grants to the US to profile them on the label’s Talk Turkey web series, which led to the idea of the actor helping design a cabin. He’ll unveil it in Sydney this month.

“The Unyoked boys have really captured what so many people living in today’s frantic world are looking for; an opportunity to unplug for their highpressure daily lives and reconnect with the wild,” McConaughey says.

The project also has a charity aspect close to the actor’s heart: proceeds will go towards protecting and preserving the wilderness.

The brothers say they didn’t know what to expect in meeting McConaughey, but they quickly found common ground.

“It’s actually quite cool because we had never met an actor like that,” says Cam.

“But it was just the most normal interaction ever. We really felt that he got our idea. He does switch off and he does get off the grid, and he lives by that two-speed lifestyle, not just always hyper; he believes you have to step back sometimes. It was cool to see that, it wasn’t what we were expecting initially. It was cool to see that he shared that wavelength.”

As for his cabin, the twins are keeping shtum.

“There’s a fair bit of his personality in there,” says Chris. “It’s still minimal, we’ve still kept it basic enough that the focus is the outdoors not the indoors, but there are some cool and wacky ideas.”

McConaughey himself said he’d “had a blast” codesigning the cabin with the lads and he’s “especially excited to head back to Australia” for the launch.

It’s not the talk of a Hollywood star telling us what we want to hear.

When Matthew McConaughey says he loves Australia, it’s the real deal.