Lands End

Luke and Thip Royans own a little piece of the Fleurieu Peninsula called Lands End. It sits at the very tip of Cape Jervis and it is just what it proclaims to be. If you walk out of the home in most directions you will inevitably meet the sea ... quite quickly in fact.

I would look at this piece of land and think that I’d like to buy that property and eventually build a house there. And I guess I have been lucky enough to do it.

The main living area encompasses ‘Gwen’s View Room’ where one can unwind and watch the world go by.

Luke grew up at Cape Jervis and attended local schools until going to boarding school at Immanuel College in Adelaide from grade eight. Luke enjoyed rural seaside living and had the best of both worlds. ‘Lots of activities outside,’ he tells me. ‘Climbing trees, running, swimming and sandpits.’ It was a traditional sort of country childhood, made better by the family’s proximity to the ocean.

Luke’s father Chris Royans worked for the government, but had been a recreational fisherman. Soon he saw an opportunity to make a living at fishing abalone and obtained a commercial licence to pursue it full time. Straight after high school in 1994, Luke started working in the fishery as well, splitting his time between Port Hughes on the Yorke Peninsula, the Southern Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island. ‘We are on a quota-based licence that runs over a year,’ says Luke. Going to where the fishing is most abundant, reading the seasons, the tides and knowing where to go for the best yield is what their lives are about.

Cape Jervis and fishing are in Luke’s blood. ‘I guess I’m a local,’ he says. ‘When I was working out of Fishery Bay at Cape Jervis I would always be coming past this property (referring to Lands End). I would look at this piece of land and think that I’d like to buy that property and eventually build a house there. And I guess I have been lucky enough to do it.’

Luke’s extended family lives at Cape Jervis as well. ‘My parents live here, my grandma, my uncle and aunt and my sister and her kids,’ he says. The fishery business is a family business and all of the family members have been, or still are, involved. When they run out of family members they employ locals. ‘I know all of the locals,’ says Luke. And when I ask what he does in his spare time he tells me: ‘There’s not a lot here really. We go to the tavern and to the shop for coffee in the mornings sometimes, but we have to go to Victor or Normanville to shop.’

The home has a grand entrance with the sea view maximised by a double-width hallway framing the ‘view room.’

The home is essentially three pavilions with the large living area and two smaller wings to either side, split between an adult retreat and the kids’ space on the other.

A neutral white and off-white kitchen with a large walk-in pantry is perfect for the family who wanted to have something that wouldn’t date too quickly.

But Luke isn’t someone to be deterred by a lack of amenities. So when the foreshore property he had eyed-off for years came on the market in 2008, Luke jumped and bought the land with his parents. They weren’t ready to build straight away but the family has utilised the land to grow hay. A couple of years ago, after Luke and Thip started their own family, they began the process of planning their build.

The ever-practical Luke did a Google search and found a company he liked. ‘I liked them because they are designers and builders,’ he says. Luke wanted to work with one company for the whole job. James Michael Homes is a bespoke building company, which only builds a small number of homes per year ‘to allow a hands-on approach and to maintain outstanding quality.’ Luke and designer James Rippon met onsite, where Luke presented a rough sketch of what he had in mind. ‘I first met Luke at the local petrol station/deli,’ remembers James. ‘I had driven down there and after waiting awhile I thought; ‘great all this way and no client’. Then a ute with fishing containers in the back swings into the deli. Luke jumped out with grease all over his hands and said ‘sorry mate, I can’t shake your hand, I’ve been under the Bobcat all morning.’ Then we jumped in the ute to take a look at ‘the block’.’ James says his first impression of the block made the wait worthwhile. ‘I thought; wow, this is a once-in-a-lifetime block to design on and Luke had wanted to build on it since he was young so we had to get this right!’

Luke and James discussed where the house would be and what the best aspect was. Luke said he only wanted to build a house once, and he wanted to do it right. Luke and Thip had the time to make the effort to achieve this, especially with their growing family and Luke’s desire for a big shed. ‘Every man needs a shed and the bigger the shed the better,’ says Luke. They also specified lots of space, inside and out, and making the most of the views to the north and to Kangaroo Island. Luke describes it this way: ‘The house points from blue to blue, you know what I mean, so where the horizon starts on one end and where it ends on the other, that’s where the house points so we get all of the sea view.’ Here they were lucky because not only do they capture this view but it faces north so you get the passive solar benefit making it achieve a very high energy rating. This aspect coupled with maximum insulation, high ceilings and cross flow ventilation means they use winter sun to heat the house and summer sun is minimised by large oversized eaves.

The large sandstone fireplace is framed by windows looking out to the ocean and Kangaroo Island.

The master bedroom with koala bed was styled for this shoot by Marcus Syvertsen of Little Road Home. Wall-hanging from the Fleurieu Arthouse is by Rebecca McEwan.

Luke liked working with James Michael Homes. ‘James is a good reader of people and a good listener, so he came up with a good design,’ says Luke. ‘The design process was quite lengthy and during construction we would meet on site as often as possible. I was confident with the work and all of the tradies were good. As the process goes along you get more and more confident.’

The house is essentially three pavilions. The central pavilion incorporates the expansive kitchen, dining and living area. It has a grand entrance with the sea view maximised by a double-width hallway framing the ‘view room.’ There are two smaller wings to either side, split between an adult retreat and the kids space on the other. The skillion roof ties them together and a neutral white and off-white palette creates a wonderful sense of calm. ‘You can hear the wind a bit,’ says Luke. But the double-glazed windows do a lot to buffer the ocean sounds. ‘The location can have some bad weather so we needed to tie this house down and we made it cyclone proof,’ says James. ‘We built over and above the building code for the area.’

The magnificent seascape can be viewed from all of the living rooms and bedrooms, with bathrooms, pantry, laundry and utilities at the back of the home. The finishes are tied together with limestone brickwork inside and out. A neutral ceramic tile is also seamlessly carried through all main living areas, which are softened with rich wall-to-wall wool rugs in the bedrooms. ‘The house is fantastic and it is what we wanted,’ says Luke. ‘It is super functional and we love the layout.’

In the process, however, a few amendments to the design were made. For example, ‘Gwen’s View Room’ was added later. ‘The front of the main house was all glazing and Luke’s grandma Gwen made the suggestion of making the living area bigger and they decided to add the view room,’ explains James. ‘It’s where one can sit and watch the world go by.’

Story by Petra de Mooy.

Photography by Robert Geh.

Styling by Marcus Syvertsen.