377 Simpsons Bay Road

Simpsons Bay TAS 7150

Dating back nearly 100 years, and first time on the market in nearly thirty, this quaint and comfortable cottage is a classic example of the kind of Bruny Island shack that is much-loved. Set on the top side of Simpsons Bay Road with its own trail to the foreshore and no close neighbours, Beacon Cottage is quiet and private. There are views through roadside vegetation to Cape Queen Elizabeth, Isthmus Bay, the Neck and on a clear day, Tasman Island - a new owner could do some sensitive pruning to increase the water views.
Beacon Cottage has great charm and a fascinating past. It earned its name decades ago, when returning fishermen used the lights of the cottage to guide them towards the original Simpsons Bay jetty. The house is full of stories - of surfers and seafarers, artists and lovers, psychics and poets. Its quirky appeal will attract the kind of people who will be more excited by the design of the vintage linoleum (laid in the late 1940s, according to the newspapers underneath) than the variations in the floor below.
The cottage is on a large gently sloping cleared block of about an acre. White gums adjacent to the property provide habitat for a colony of rare and endangered 40-spotted pardalotes, one of Tasmania's endemic bird species. From the living room, a pair of French doors open to a covered timber deck in front of the house, which faces due north for morning sunshine. A ramp leads down to a sunken BBQ pit, the scene of poetry readings and play performances for an earlier owner. If that's not your thing, it's just the place to fire up the barbie on a summer afternoon.