Every essay on the site, from Queenslander planning to cyclone detailing. Start in a topic hub if you would rather read by discipline.
Living and outdoor · 2 December 2024
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
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
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
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
Waterproofing, ventilation and a kitchen that can open to the deck without becoming the hottest room in the house.
Queensland regions · 16 September 2024
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
Building and contracts · 9 September 2024
Timelines, wet-season sequencing, variations and hold points — how an owner stays useful on site without becoming the unpaid supervisor.
Climate and resilience · 26 August 2024
Queensland will flood you and then refuse to rain. How to design tanks, overflows and a garden that can survive both moods.
Building and contracts · 12 August 2024
Salt, sun, driving rain and a long wet season — how to choose skins and roofs for a custom home that will still look intended in year twelve.
Climate and resilience · 22 July 2024
Ceilings that radiate, glass that glares, and why a tropical custom home needs a different envelope conversation than a southern star rating pamphlet.
Building and contracts · 1 July 2024
What owners should budget beyond the builder’s headline number — land, extras, climate detailing, and the lines that blow a Cairns or Brisbane custom job.
Queensland regions · 24 June 2024
Three different custom products in one city — salt and wind on the beach, water levels on the canals, and BAL plus contour in the hinterland.
Building and contracts · 17 June 2024
Slab, stump, steel and the CSIRO classes people quote at barbecues — how to match a custom-home footing to clay, sand, fill and a wet season.
Design and architecture · 3 June 2024
A single great room looks generous on a plan and harsh at 3 pm. How to keep the breeze and the family without turning a Queensland custom home into a noisy glass hall.
Planning and approvals · 20 May 2024
HIA and Master Builders forms, cost-plus temptations, prime-cost allowances, and the owner-builder mistakes that turn a custom home into a correspondence course.
Queensland regions · 13 May 2024
Small lots, timber neighbours, flood maps and a ridge breeze — how a custom house in the capital differs from the tropical catalogue this site grew up with.
Read Brisbane custom homes, character suburbs and hinterland
Design and architecture · 6 May 2024
Custom Homes QLD once sold Aspen, Banksia, Cedar, Ironbark and a grove of other named designs. The floor plans are gone. The naming system is still a brief for a tropical custom house.
Read From Aspen to Teak: what the old timber-named plans still teach
Climate and resilience · 29 April 2024
Orientation, eaves, trees and a breeze path you can draw — the cheap tonnes that still beat a bigger air-conditioner in a subtropical and tropical house.
Design and architecture · 15 April 2024
Who should lead a custom home when the climate is tropical, the overlays are fussy, and the old Cairns studio model — designer, architect, builder in one breath — still tempts owners.
Planning and approvals · 8 April 2024
BAL is not a hinterland fashion. How a rating is set, what it does to decks and windows, and why a pretty timber underside can be the most expensive idea on a ridge.
Design and architecture · 26 March 2024
Verandahs, breezeways and outdoor rooms that still work when the wet season arrives — finishes, insects, levels and the line between a deck and a second lounge.
Climate and resilience · 18 March 2024
Stars, glazing and the 7-star pathway — how to use the rating tools without letting a software score design a tropical house you will hate.
Design and architecture · 4 March 2024
Cut-and-fill is not a personality. How to step a custom house down a Queensland slope, keep soil and neighbours on side, and spend the contour on rooms rather than retaining walls.
Planning and approvals · 19 February 2024
Who actually says yes to a custom home — planning schemes, overlays, building approval, and the private certifier who is not your project manager.
Design and architecture · 12 February 2024
What still works in the raised timber house — shade, airflow, a dry undercroft — and what a 2020s custom build should steal, leave or reinvent.
Climate and resilience · 5 February 2024
Wind regions, debris, roofs and the wet-season calendar — what a custom home on the Queensland coast must do besides look like a holiday.
Planning and approvals · 22 January 2024
The checks an owner should run before a deposit leaves the account — contractor licences, owner-builder permits, and what the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme actually covers.
Queensland regions · 15 January 2024
Humidity, cyclone code, rainforest edges and a labour market that knows the wet season — how to commission a house in the climate this masthead came from.
Planning and approvals · 8 January 2024
Overlays, floor levels, materials that can take a bath, and the difference between a raised house and a house that will still be a house after the water leaves.