Kara Rosenlund’s North Stradbroke Island weekender

Kara Rosenlund knows a good thing when she sees it. Working as a travel photographer, it’s her job to document moments in time with such authenticity that it transports the observer. Her photos make you feel like you’ve travelled without having your passport stamped.

On the flipside, being on the road constantly has made Rosenlund acutely aware of the restorative nature of taking things slow on the weekends, and it’s what inspired her search with her husband to find the perfect weekender.

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“We were looking for a place to escape to and be reminded of simpler times,” she says. “A place where you can walk down a sandy track and pop out at the beach and take in the quieter details of the Australian landscape.”

Their search went on for years as the couple were committed to finding something that felt “nostalgic and old school with a strong connection to outdoors”. Eventually on a trip to North Stradbroke Island in late 2017, they found what they had been looking for.

“We came across this A-frame and fell in love immediately.”

Wasting no time, they were quick to secure the property, which remained largely untouched since it was built in the 1970s. Wanting to preserve the look and feel of the home, the couple made minor cosmetic changes to the interior.

“The house was in original form and had great bones to add upon,” says Rosenlund, who added a fireplace to the lounge room and restored the tired bedrooms.

“The bedrooms needed some work and layers added,” she says. “They didn’t have ceilings, so we added a mezzanine and added layers of grass cloth wallpaper to each of the bedrooms to add depth plus lots of rewiring.”

When adding to the existing interiors, she took style cues from the surrounding beach and landscape.

“I found a new appreciation for coastal banksias and the golden brown hues of their leaves and brought in a lot of textures of seagrass, woven rattan and cane into our home.”

During the week the pair lives in Brisbane but come the weekends Stradbroke Island is home. Their weekend ritual begins when they drive 40 minutes to the ferry, which transports them across the waters to the humble A-frame that awaits.

“Stradbroke Island has many secrets though the best one is the sense of joy and freedom you feel as soon as you hop on the boat and leave the mainland behind,” she says. “It’s the best feeling in the world.”

While Rosenlund and her husband spend their time at the house immersing in nature, taking photos (which she recently published in her book Weekends), cooking and appreciating the quietness, the house itself has a former party reputation that precedes it.

“The house was built in the 1970s and was quite the party house back in the day,” she says. “When I tell locals where we live their faces light up, instantly remembering wild nights and good times – this house has such great energy.”

Nowadays there’s less pumping music, punch bowls and partygoers. “It’s just the two of us and our backyard crew of kangaroos.” And it’s exactly the way she likes it.