This was published 6 months ago
Writers’ retreat: Inside Tim Flannery and Kate Holden’s eclectic, coastal home
By Susan Redman
Inspiration abounds, both in the cabinets of curiosities within this eco-built house and the bushland outside.
Kate Holden and Tim Flannery in the open-plan living area, where they like to entertain. It is filled with books, plants and numerous op-shop finds. Suspended above them is a wooden-framed canoe handcrafted by Peter Ingram-Jones.Credit: Jennifer Soo
The home
A new steel-framed, timber house featuring recycled materials, set under the Illawarra escarpment with views to the ocean.
Who lives here
Kate Holden, an author, Tim Flannery, an environmental scientist and author, and their son Coleby Holden, aged 10.
What we did
“We demolished a small, uninhabitable fibro shack and rebuilt on challenging terrain, high above the road and over a creek,” says Holden, who took responsibility for the interior design.
Favourite room
For Flannery, it’s the lounge room. “It sits beneath a handcrafted canoe-lampshade, is full of books, mementos and music, has a fireplace and is often filled with our friends,” he says.
The ’hood
“We have forest, seaside, sweet houses, great shops and an amazing community of artists, thinkers, innovators, scientists and activists,” says Holden.
Future plans
“We’ve only just settled in,” says Holden, “so we want to finish hanging
our pictures!”
Best advice
Be creative when it comes to recycling, says Holden. “Most of our furnishings are second-hand, salvaged or upcycled. We made our bathroom cabinets from scrap wood during the pandemic, and we love the recycled floorboards.”
A Huon pine display case in the corner of the living room displays Flannery’s collection of fossilised teeth from the prehistoric megalodon shark.Credit: Jennifer Soo
The cook’s kitchen features custom-built hanging racks for pots and pans, open shelves and lots of cookbooks. The cabinetry utilises native blackbutt timbeCredit: Jennifer Soo
Flannery’s office looks out over a lush rainforest setting and features floorboards made from recycled Baltic pine. The print over the piano is by Peter Schouten. Credit: Jennifer Soo
A paddle from the Solomon Islands and cannons from Indonesia rest against filing cabinets in Flannery’s office. Artefacts on top include carvings from New Guinea.Credit: Jennifer Soo
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