The Little Black Shack on Sydney's Great Mackerel Beach is beyond picturesque

It sounds idyllic. Swaying trees. A sweetly scented 70-year-old frangipani tree. Private beach at the front. National park out the back. No cars. No shops. No worries. Exactly the antidote to our modern stressed life.

The Little Black Shack, a timber and sandstone fisherman’s cottage is unique holiday accommodation on one of Sydney’s hidden beaches. While it’s the type of place you’d delightedly isolate at, it’s also a shining example of how to restore a home using recycled materials and environmentally friendly building techniques.

Both were essential to the Little Black Shack owners and Northern Beaches residents Jamie and Ingrid Kwong. They purchased this piece of Great Mackerel Beach paradise in 2013 from the original fisherman’s granddaughter and took 18 months to lovingly restore the property by hand. 

The “somewhat accidental hosts,” rented the restored shack on Airbnb as an afterthought. Originally considered a holiday home, they swiftly realised this had to be their “forever home”. But with school-age children and city jobs it just wasn’t practical – at that life juncture. 

“Rather than let it sit idle, we wanted others to experience it. Our ambition is to positively influence our environment and our guests, one couple, one weekend at a time,” Jamie and Ingrid say. 

As for the environmentally friendly rebuild, in classic local beaches style they enlisted the services of “a lovely young French guy named Jerome”, a “green” carpenter they had met when he did a deck repair and kids treehouse build at home for them. 

While the original plans were straightforward – replace the asbestos roof and the exterior and interior wall cladding – uncovering extensive termite damage turned it into a much bigger project than anticipated. 

“The shack had to be carefully taken apart and pieced back together,” says Jamie, brightly adding: “This gave us the opportunity to design every detail of it.” 

At weekends, the couple would join Jerome and his tradesman traveller friends, who camped and worked on site six days a week. 

“We would arrive on the first ferry every Saturday morning to share design ideas, monitor progress and work alongside them. We’d then come back on the first Sunday morning ferry and have the place to ourselves to plan and design, when they would head into town and stock up on essentials,” says Jamie. 

Long before sustainability was a buzzword, Jamie, an advertising creative and Ingrid a graphic designer and artist followed the principles of restore, reuse and recycle. 

“In the mid-’80s we were considered quite unusual for our love of the old and dislike for the new, fast consumerism and waste,” he quips. “It was natural that we’d put what was lying around the shack to good use. Besides, when your only access is by boat you use up everything you can – there was no skip bin sitting at the bottom of the garden.” 

Everything at the Little Black Shack is secondhand, handmade or pre-loved, except, of course, the linen. The shack uses “nature’s airconditioning” with 14 restored original windows, two secondhand French doors and four handmade barn doors taking pleasure in the sea breezes. Old floorboards are used in kitchen cabinets and timber was salvaged for framing, furniture or firewood, if not suitable for building. Even the paints are eco, all water-based and low or zero VOC. 

Plus, an eclectic mix of pre-loved furniture, collectables and family mementos gathered from their travels around Australia and the world, mean every corner whispers with a story to tell. 

The little boat made out of driftwood on the bedroom wall is a piece they bought on their first backpacking adventure around the Greek Islands in 1989. “It cost about the equivalent of 170 Heinekens – serious money in backpacker terms – so to compensate we went on a week-long restricted food and alcohol diet and slept at the beach a few nights,” laughs Jamie. 

The comfy old leather chairs in the lounge room were picked up secondhand, finding out years later, they’re famous 1960s chairs from Norway. “We just love their well-loved look and think they’re the most comfortable chairs to sit (and fall asleep) in.”

Adding to this great Aussie beach holiday is the stunning indoor and outdoor kitchen, inspired by their intrepid travels. 

“Our holidays have always involved the sea and simple outdoor lifestyles (Mexico, Caribbean, Mediterranean) and cooking and eating simple foods in traditional ways, so we decided to make sure the shack had that option. Besides, we had always wanted a wood-fired oven so everything centred around that,” say the couple. 

The Kwongs are working towards one day taking the 1350-square-metre shack and surrounds completely off the grid.

“Our aim is to be totally powered by the sun, grow, raise and catch as much of our own food as we can, make any furniture we need and collect all our water from the sky and the sea,” they say. 

Eventually, it would also mean being at the shack full time so they could terrace the steep back yard and turn it into a food-producing garden. Take heed. If the Little Black Shack sounds like your Eden, snag yourself a visit before then.