One of Australia’s best-kept secrets, a custom-built timber cabin built from repurposed electricity posts that go back to Australia’s first European colonists, is now on the market…with the Marra Marra Shack, “floating above” a steep elevation at the junction of the Hawkesbury River and Berowra Creek – less than an hour from the centre of Sydney.
Designed by Leopold Banchini Architects, the BAL-FZ-rated 2-bedroom, 1-bath dwelling is a past winner of the Australian Timber Design Awards—Recycled Timber Category (sponsored by Kennedy Timbers). It combines recycled ironbark telegraph poles and spotted gum in the exposed floor and ceiling post-and-beam system with pine plywood manufactured into laminated veneer lumber (LVL) to create a lightweight floor floating the waterway.
“The shack is almost entirely constructed from timber,” according to the Swiss-based Leopold Banchini, who said two carpenters could only access the work site via boat: “The materials had to be small and light enough to fit on a barge and lifted without heavy machinery, timber was the perfect choice.”
According to Banchini, the timber posts are repurposed from 200-year-old telegraph poles installed by early settlers along the Hawkesbury River: “Similarly, the roof beams, made up of recycled Spotted gum, were grown locally in the Darug region. Offcuts from these, as well as Turpentine timber from the old jetty, were used to build the furniture and joinery.”
The posts are sleeved inside a steel hollow section at the base for protection
against bushfires. (Photo Credit: Rory Gardiner)
Cocooned inside the Marramarra National Park, it sits inside a sloping 809 square metre block and “is the perfect paradise for canoeing, kayaking, swimming, boating, bushwalking and birdwatching,” according to the REA listing. “To minimise disruption… the shack appears to float above the sloped site by stepping the floor structure and cantilevering the floor bearers off the timber posts,” Banchini said. “The stepped floor defines the architectural program and the structural grid. With a post and beam structure only 1.5m apart, the secondary structure was constructed from small LVL sections.”
The Australian Timber Design Awards is back for 2025!
Applications for the 2025 Australian Timber Design Awards are now open and will close in June. Now in their 26th year, the Australian Timber Design Awards are distinguished by their proud heritage of innovation and achievement—including the Bates Smart-designed Australian Embassy building in Washington, D.C., which last year secured the Australian Timber Design Awards Grand Prize.
Andrew Dunn, CEO of the Timber Development Association and awards organiser, said the awards promote and encourage outstanding timber design: “It is open to anyone involved in designing or building structures that feature timber.”