POINTS WEST
A COUPLE’S IMPULSE PURCHASE AND CONSIDERED RENOVATION OF A 100-YEAR-OLD BAYSIDE SHACK PROVIDED THE CHANCE TO COLLABORATE ON A CREATIVE PROJECT.
A quintessential Tasmanian shack gets a new lease of life on the pristine west coast and the resident ducks love to visit.
hugging the foreshore at Lettes Bay on Tasmania’s west coast, near Strahan, may not immediately remind anyone of the whitewashed, red-roofed homes on the sun-drenched Greek island of Lesvos. But for Claire Lloyd, a designer, photographer and author, and her partner, artist Matthew Usmar Lauder, the two communities share one very important characteristic: the globetrotting couple call both places home.
Claire and Matthew weren’t looking to buy a house when they visited Tasmania three years ago, but a chance meeting with a local resulted in a new adventure. Claire had become enchanted by the state the previous year, on a spontaneous trip to meet and photograph the potter Zsolt Faludi, whose work she loves.
“The following year I went back with Matthew, as he hadn’t been, and we visited Lettes Bay for the first time,” she recalls. “We were waiting to be let into our accommodation and I said to Matthew, ‘Wow, what do we have to do to buy a place around here?’ He wandered off and struck up a conversation with a guy who by chance was looking to sell his shack nearby. Unlike Matthew, I’m very impulsive, so when he asked what I thought, it was an immediate yes.” >
The humble buildings at Lettes Bay were built mostly in the 1920s by resourceful miners from nearby Queenstown, which at the time was a grim, treeless, polluted spot. Recognising this, the mining company leased the land for its employees as a coastal holiday retreat. The shacks are ad hoc and basic, because they were knocked together from whatever lightweight, repurposed materials could be brought easily to the site.
So the couple’s top-to-bottom renovation of the 36sqm, one-bedroom shack was no easy task. It was rendered even more logistically challenging thanks to another impulse real-estate purchase: that Greek island home, where they usually spend most of their time. Nevertheless, they set to work: “We pulled it apart and stripped it down to its bones. We put in new wiring and plumbing and re-did the bathroom. New timber floors were laid over the original ones, which were unfortunately too draughty for the cool Tasmanian climate,” Claire says.
Having grown up in Sydney, Claire lived in London, where she met Matthew, for many years – but despite acclimatising to the UK’S cold weather, still prefers to escape to her sunny Greek island home during the Tasmanian winters.
The creative pair did the majority of the work themselves, only employing tradespeople where necessary. “Matthew has become very adept at turning his hand to most things as needed. It took about six months all up and was a real labour of love. We lived in a caravan on site, and at times it was so wet and windy we thought it was going to end up in the bay. It was both challenging and charming,” Claire says with a smile.
“At one point we were completely exhausted by it, but then some lovely friends from Sydney came to visit and help, which gave us the energy to keep going.” And finally, Bushy Summers, as it was named, was ready to move into.
Bushy Summers’ cosy atmosphere is a reflection of Claire’s signature “simple, light and feminine” style, which she has honed through her work as a designer and during previous renovations. “While Matthew is a hoarder, my whole ethos is simplicity. I always consider the light >
“I always consider the light in a space, then create a sense of comfort and cosiness through textures.”
“I particularly love the bathroom. You feel you want to lie in the bath and gaze through the window up to the treetops.”
in a space, then create a sense of comfort and cosiness through textures,” she says.
In much the same way as the shack was originally built, Claire and Matthew’s renovation used as many recycled and preloved elements as possible, a philosophy that also chimes with the Tasmanian Heritage Council’s recommendations for these informal ‘overnighters’.
For Claire, looking out over Lettes Bay, an inlet of Macquarie Harbour just under three hours’ drive from Devonport, is like watching an ever-changing painting. “The dramatic evolving colours are beautiful. It can be bright and sunny one minute, then the clouds will roll in the next,” she says. “Above the treetops, you can see the steam from the Wilderness Railway train chugging along its bayside track, and hear its charming whistle.
“When we’re in Australia we get down to Lettes Bay as often as we can – in fact, we’re renovating another shack there at the moment,” Claire says. More than a century after a mining company recognised the restorative powers of time spent in Lettes Bay’s peaceful surrounds, Claire and Matthew have ensured that Bushy Summers will continue as it started: a nurturing space for those seeking retreat.
For more information or bookings, see @bushysummers
ABOUT THE HOUSE:
• The couple named their shack Bushy Summers because of the moniker of a previous owner, who was known locally as “a bit of a character,” says Claire.
• One of Claire’s favourite vintage shops is Mr Wolf in Devonport. See @mrwolf_shop
• The interior is painted in Dulux Bright White, while the exterior is Taubmans Jackal, with trim in Night Sky.
• The bed linen in the shack is from Bed Tonic.
• Matthew made the boat artwork above the bath from scraps of timber salvaged during the renovation.