Fiona Lodge Ronald McDonald Beach House is a fully self-contained duplex, consisting of two fully-furnished luxury apartments.

Each apartment has three bedrooms and two bathrooms which comfortably accommodate a family of five or six people.

A separate family room and play area is provided on the lower level, adjacent to pristine bushland and a private beach.


Architect Colin Irwin indicated very early in the Fiona Lodge Ronald McDonald Beach House project that he would be delighted to come up with a design but when he saw the land at Tranquil Bay Place, he knew for sure that it would be a very special project.

The land provided the inspiration, he said, and with no fixed brief he was able to let his design evolve without constraints. "The tall tree forest and the possibility of opening the design up to the landscape made this a very enjoyable project," said the senior partner in the firm Bishop, Hitchcock and Irwin.

The beauty of the site and the steep slop gave Colin very clear ideas for his design and the finished product is something of which both he and the community can be very proud. The geometric lines, the feathered steel roofline, the sandstone feature wall, the "fragmented organic form" with corners opening to face the view all combine to present a unique home on a spectacular site.

Bishop, Hitchcock and Irwin were pleased to be part of the project and are now very satisfied with the end product. "Now it's finished, we feel very excited," said Colin.


It has been a challenging project but builder Geoff Fielding can be suitably proud of his involvement in the Fiona Lodge project.

He put up his hand for the project's construction phase because he knew it needed good coordination - and he had the skills required. In the early stages of the project, generous donations of materials and some expertise were flowing in but they were of limited use without the ability to pull everything together on the site. "It was a very special building for a very good cause and I knew it had to be done properly," said Geoff.

The construction phase took 12 months - longer than most building projects - but juggling the incoming materials and matching them to tradespeople and a time schedule took time, care and organisation. Tony Kennedy, Mick Kelly and Esa Leppanen were key figures in keeping the building on track and according to Geoff, the whole thing could not have happened without the expertise of surveyor Chris Conway and Steve Owers who did the many, many shop drawings for the structural steel.

"It could not have been done without those guys," he said. "And everyone who worked on the site did a great job and it pulled a lot of people together who otherwise wouldnt work together."

A combination of paid and unpaid labour worked throughout the 12 months. Geoff described the design of the house as a "bit tricky" but problems were overcome with a combination of expertise and a will to see the very best outcome.