16/07/2026
“Mate, pull that sign down. I’ll buy it right now.” — That’s what founder Josh Torney told a real estate agent one afternoon after a surf in Arrawarra.
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He hadn’t inspected the property. There weren’t any keys. The house had been sitting abandoned for almost a decade. But Josh wasn’t buying the weatherboard shack. He was buying the possibility of what it could become.
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Read the full interview on our website.
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Five years later, that spontaneous purchase has evolved into Arrawarra House, a striking concrete retreat in the small Mid North Coast surf town. What followed wasn’t an immediate demolition and rebuild, but four years of inhabiting the site in its most raw state.
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After clearing out the derelict interior, Torney, his wife, and their young family used the property as a makeshift holiday camp. They slept in swags beneath a damaged roof, improvised showers and toilets, and shared the space with possums and the occasional snake.
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“We just enjoyed that part of it,” he says. “No care, no worries. We’d go down there for a week and camp in the house.”
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He used that time to consider what the project would become. Completed in September 2025, Arrawarra House is a concrete retreat that feels unexpectedly at home among the modest beach shacks that line the surrounding streets. Designed in collaboration with Reece Keil Design, the house underwent several iterations before arriving at its final form.
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“The first two designs I sat on for about a year and a half,” Torney says. “I’d draw them, send them through, and then decide they weren’t right.”
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Positioned at the end of a quiet street, with direct access to the beach, the home turns away from neighbouring properties and instead focuses on bushland and ocean views. Exposed concrete ceilings, natural stone, and restrained material selections create interiors that feel both robust and calming.
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Available as a holiday stay, Arrawarra Beach House has become something of a local curiosity.
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Experience the story and the stay for yourself.