03 Clarke Shack.
DUNSBOROUGH FAMILY HOLIDAY HOME
03 Clarke Shack is an architect-designed Dunsborough family holiday home, set above paperbark woodland and a winter brook, close to Geographe Bay. One of the early mi shack® projects, it helped prove that a modest holiday home could still feel compact, practical and full of personality.
Small footprint. Big holiday feeling.
PROJECT SNAPSHOT.
Project: 03 Clarke Shack.
Location: Dunsborough, Western Australia.
Region: Geographe Bay / South West WA.
Design system: MIDS — Modular Integrated Design System by mi shack®.
Home type: Architect-designed Dunsborough family holiday home.
Use: Private family holiday home.
Setting: Elevated site above paperbark woodland, close to Geographe Bay.
Status: Completed February 2014.
Indoors: 175 sqm.
Outdoors: 162 sqm.
Sleeping zones: 3.
Bathrooms: 2.
Design idea: A compact, character-rich family holiday home shaped around site, budget, family life and South West escape.
Why it matters: Early proof that MIDS can create a modest holiday home with real architectural personality.
FRIENDS OF THE SHACK FROM THE START.
Clarke Shack holds a special place in the mi shack® story. Owners Tony and Rosie were among the earliest supporters of the practice — graphic designers by trade who helped shape mi shack’s original branding and the first iterations of the design app. So this was never just a commission; it was a project built with people who understood, and helped build, what mi shack was trying to become. That history runs right through the home.
THE BRIEF, AND THE GD27 SPIRIT.
The owners had searched for years for the right design solution — a Dunsborough holiday home with real character that still suited their budget. They wanted something architectural without being overworked: relaxed, practical, easy to use, and built around family life — beach trips, slow mornings, long weekends, simple South West holidays.
The project carried a playful nickname through design — GD27 — which suited the owners’ creative background and the home’s loose, relaxed character. The brief even made room for a much-loved 1972 Honda CB350F café racer rebuild. So the home needed a little grit alongside the style, and above all the easy feeling of a real family shack. The final plan keeps things simple: living spaces open to the landscape, sleeping zones tucked away for privacy, and outdoor areas that carry holiday life. Compact and efficient, yet somehow generous.
MID-CENTURY MEETS RURAL SHED.
Clarke Shack has a clear personality — a mid-century modern influence crossed with the honest, practical feel of an Australian rural shed. It’s not polished to death, and it’s not pretending to be a luxury resort. It’s relaxed, bright and useful, with a bit of music, a bit of motorcycle grit and a lot of South West ease.
Underneath the character, it’s a passive-solar home: orientation, shade, light and indoor-outdoor flow were part of the design from the start. In a South West holiday home that’s not a technical box-tick — it’s the difference between a house you tolerate and one you love. Or, as Tony Clarke puts it:
“Our award winning shack skirting the south west holiday town of Dunsborough is a dream come true. Our minimalist solar passive retreat is bright, warm and floods with morning light — you can’t fail to be uplifted when staying our place!”
A FAMILY BASE, NOT A RENTAL.
Clarke Shack was once let as an Airbnb, but today it works best as what it really is — a private family holiday home. Not a hotel-style escape, not a generic short-stay, but a family base in Dunsborough that carries weekends, school holidays and slow South West time. Beach gear has a place; so do the bikes. Above all, it makes room for family rituals — and that’s where its warmth comes from.
BUDGET GUIDE.
Clarke is a compact, customised holiday home, so think in bands rather than a single rate. As an indicative guide, a comparable South West WA holiday home of this scale would sit in the range of $1.0–1.5 million to build today, depending on floor area, specification, site complexity and approval pathway. That excludes land, consultant and approval fees.
It’s exactly the kind of project where early testing earns its keep — a Map iT and Shack Map test the brief, the site and a realistic budget band before design, documentation, approvals and builder pricing lock things in.
RELATED PROJECTS.
03 Clarke Shack is part of mi shack’s broader work across coastal, rural, metro and regional WA. You might also like:
01 White Shack — the first mi shack® and the origin of the design system.
05 J’s Retreat — a larger Wilyabrup holiday home and the first mi shack® mega shack.
12 Eagle Bay Shack — a generous Eagle Bay holiday home near the coast.
14 Cannon Shack — a Dunsborough family home shaped around rural South West living.
17 Driftwood Shack — a Peppermint Grove Beach coastal home shaped by BAL-29, salt air, screening and wellness.
Start your own shack map
Thinking about a Dunsborough family holiday home, a South West beach house or a compact coastal retreat?
Start with a Shack Map — the first step in testing what’s possible on your site.
Live. Love. Shack.
