Australia’s most remote islands, The Cocos (Keeling) Islands is welcoming a rare addition to its tiny accommodation offering with The Cephalopod opening on West Island.
Set among the palms and just metres from the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean, The Cephalopod is a new eco-retreat hand-built by local couple Emma Washer & Pete Wicks who own the island’s gallery café, The Big Barge Art Centre.
New accommodation is a rarity on Cocos. The opening of a new property is a significant addition for travellers looking to visit the islands as the atoll can host just 144 visitors at any one time.
The owners have brought the same creative, hands-on approach seen at The Big Barge to their newest project, designing and building The Cephalopod themselves and giving careful thought to how – and what – they built.
Far from sales yards and the likes of Bunnings, the couple repurposed what they could find wherever possible. Beautiful timbers salvaged from original island bungalows along with interesting washed-up beach timbers were collected and given a second life.
Re-purposed interiors including a pendant light fashioned from a flotsam buoy, a woven rope welcome mat and walls adorned with local artist work, add to the pod’s calming, maritime feel. A favourite is a large log that washed up on a sandbar in the Cocos Lagoon, likely having drifted across the ocean from Indonesia, salvaged using a portable mill and boat to be transformed into The Cephalopod’s kitchen bench.
It’s an approach that makes sense on Cocos, where almost everything must travel thousands of kilometres before it arrives.
Sustainability extends beyond the materials used in the build too. A rainwater tank and eco-toilet are designed to reduce The Cephalopods environmental footprint, a considered approach to water and waste – important in a remote island environment where resources are finite.
The result is an eco-style retreat that feels very much at home in its surroundings. The Cephalopod is quiet and private, with a soft palette of blues and greens, high-quality linens, handmade ceramics and a focus on simplicity and slowing down.
Just steps from the property is the tropical landscape that makes Cocos so special. Twenty-seven coral islands form a horseshoe around a vast turquoise lagoon with white-sand beaches, coconut palms and warm Indian Ocean waters providing a natural playground for swimming, snorkelling, diving, fishing, kitesurfing and exploring by bike.
Only West Island and Home Island are inhabited and, with limited tourism and just two flights each week from Perth via Qantas, days here remain uncrowded.
For its owners, The Cephalopod is a continuation of their philosophy to create something unique and beautiful from what is already available, rather than buying more. It’s a thoughtfully built, distinctly Cocos place to stay in a destination where new places to stay don’t come along very often. Just like a washed-up nautilus shell, a rare but great Cephalopod find when you stumble across one!
