Autonomous House on Coorong Road
This is a small house for an elderly couple and their family in a remote coastal location in the South-East of South Australia, in the dunes behind Australia’s longest beach – the 197 km Coorong Beach.

Its remoteness means that it has to generate all its services without support from the grid: its own power, lighting, comms, heating, cold water, hot water and wastewater treatment.

It has solar panels for electric power with up to 13kW generating capacity, and 27 kWh of lithium ion battery storage; this power runs lights, power outlets, pumps, cooking and air conditioning. Often with surplus power to spare, the house is used to charge the owners’ electric car.

Water is collected from the roof and the house has 60,000 litres of storage in adjacent tanks. Hot water is provided by a roof-top panel, and boosted by electricity if required.
The house has roof-top sprinklers and an automatic Embarr bushfire detection system: if its camera detects a fire approaching it switches on a diesel-powered pump which sets the sprinklers going. The camera checks every 30 seconds: if the fire has gone, it switches the system off.

The floor level is about 1 metre above the ground, this is good for views, but also for reducing the ingress of sand, which in this environment, is everywhere. It also discourages the local kangaroos and wallabies from hanging around the doors. An unusual design parameter was the requirement for 1500mm deep footings; wombats live here and are ferocious excavators – other houses have been undermined!

This site is occasionally, however, subject to long periods of overcast and cold southerly winds but has plenty of wood, so a slow-combustion stove augments the comfort inside. A north-aspect deck allows outdoor living, protected from the southerlies.
Interiors are warm and snug, away from the wind. The flooring is rose gum, harvested from a site which had had a bushfire through it in 2021 and milled on-site. The house has become much loved and cherished by the family.