Plans that earn their verandah
Design and architecture
Queenslander logic, sloping blocks, indoor-outdoor rooms and the choice between an architect and a design-and-construct builder.
Featured essay
Queenslander architecture for a modern custom home
What still works in the raised timber house — shade, airflow, a dry undercroft — and what a 2020s custom build should steal, leave or reinvent.
Photo: Kgbo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source · Image credits
Topic hubs
Read by discipline
Licences before earthworks
Planning and approvals
QBCC licensing, home warranty insurance, council and private certifiers, bushfire ratings, flood overlays and the contracts that keep a custom job honest.
Cost, ground and hold points
Building and contracts
What a Queensland custom home actually costs, how foundations meet local soils, which cladding lasts, and how to project-manage variations without losing the house.
Heat, wind, water, drought
Climate and resilience
NatHERS and energy, cyclone ratings, passive cooling, insulation north of the Tropic, and the tanks and stormwater systems that keep a house usable in a dry year.
From Palm Cove to the border
Queensland regions
How custom building changes between Cairns and the Far North, Brisbane character suburbs, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, and regional cities such as Townsville, Mackay and Toowoomba.
The rooms Queensland is famous for
Living and outdoor
Pools and outdoor kitchens, granny flats and secondary dwellings, and the ramps, bathrooms and planning choices that let a custom house age with its owners.
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Living and outdoor · 2 December 2024
Accessibility and ageing-in-place in a custom Queensland home
Ramps, showers, a room on the entry level and the Queensland problems of stairs, heat and long wet seasons — design the first house as if you might stay.
Read Accessibility and ageing-in-place in a custom Queensland home
Living and outdoor · 18 November 2024
Granny flats and secondary dwellings in Queensland
Planning definitions, flood and fire traps, and how to add a second household to a custom block without inventing a dispute.
Queensland regions · 4 November 2024
Regional Queensland custom homes in Townsville, Mackay and Toowoomba
Three regional climates, three labour markets, one warning — do not import a capital-city plan and hope the trades and the weather will adapt.
Read Regional Queensland custom homes in Townsville, Mackay and Toowoomba
Living and outdoor · 21 October 2024
Pools, outdoor kitchens and the Queensland backyard
How to design the backyard as a system — water, glare, fences, a cook’s path and a pool that does not bankrupt the house it sits behind.
Building and contracts · 7 October 2024
Kitchens and wet areas in a custom Queensland home
Waterproofing, ventilation and a kitchen that can open to the deck without becoming the hottest room in the house.
Queensland regions · 16 September 2024
Sunshine Coast custom homes from Noosa to the hinterland
A cooler tourist photograph than Cairns, and a planning culture that still punishes unshaded glass — how to build a custom house between the river, the beach and the range.
Read Sunshine Coast custom homes from Noosa to the hinterland
Why this journal exists
Tropical first, statewide second
The historic Custom Homes QLD practice in Caravonica, Cairns, sold timber-named designs and a simple promise: modern, stylish, functional houses that take the Far North seriously. We keep that voice and turn it into owner-facing reporting on design, approvals, contracts and climate.
Photo: Queensland State Archives · CC BY 4.0 · Source · Image credits
