The clients—an enterprising couple who’d snagged a block of land in Apollo Bay—were on the hunt for a competitively priced builder and were nearly ready to throw in the towel. They’d been quoted close to $700,000 by local builders along the Great Ocean Road, which is hardly surprising given the difficulties of finding trades in that area.
A New Frontier: Taking on a Remote Project
Truth be told, we’d never tackled a project that far away ourselves, and the idea of prefabricating an entire house, hauling it down there, and then craning it on and off the trucks was loaded with possible pitfalls.
Now, there’s the “stuff you know you don’t know”—the kind of challenge you can plan for, research, and figure out. But it’s the “stuff you don’t know that you don’t know” that really keeps you on your toes. It adds a certain tail risk to any project but also some excitement because learning new things on the fly can be great fun.
So, first step: I decided to drive down to Apollo Bay and scope out the site. I can’t resist a scenic dive—yes, you read that right—and the Great Ocean Road, however unimaginative its name might be, is a visual feast of ocean views and birdlife. Once on-site, it was love at first sight (pun intended). The land was perched on a hill at the end of a road, overlooking the Southern Ocean—just far enough from the waves to spare us the worst of the coastal weather. Still, it was a fair distance from the breakers, so we knew wind was going to be a big factor.
Designing a Modular Solution
With the project officially in our lap, we started on architectural drawings, mindful that every element would need to be transportable. The house was designed to break neatly into three modules, and we planned to add the eaves and pergolas once everything was on-site. Our clients, bless them, were wonderfully supportive when it came to the design changes we needed for a truly “modular” build. It made finalizing the drawings and the engineering a lot easier. Between wind loads and the absolute necessity of millimetre perfection, we had plenty to think about. After all, if the floors didn’t line up perfectly once we dropped the modules in place, we’d be stuck with jarring steps from one section to another—a big no-no aesthetically.
We got to work on the plumbing and electrical rough-in, installed steel stumps using a concrete-free steel pile system to keep everything level, and eventually loaded the three modules onto trucks in early December. With approval needed from three different councils to traverse the back roads en route to Apollo Bay, there were some bureaucratic delays, plus we underestimated crane time by about $25,000. Lesson learned. But on December 17th, we finally hauled everything to the site, and—hallelujah—the modules landed perfectly. The cranes fired up at 5 a.m. and only finished at 9:30 p.m., when they headed back to Geelong.
A Team Effort: Experience at the Helm
We have a phenomenal team at Garden Studios—many of the guys who designed, planned, and built this home are in their late sixties, bringing decades of invaluable experience. Honestly, without their guidance, I’d have thought twice about taking this on. It’s been a privilege to lead a group capable of turning a vision like this into reality. I’m deeply grateful to our clients for handing us this opportunity.
The Apollo Bay project proves we can still build competitively. Sure, as a business, we lost money this time around—despite quoting a solid $300,000 below the nearest competitor, I don’t think we actually underquoted. Sometimes you take a hit to gain the experience, and what we learned will fuel future prefabricated modular builds across country Victoria and maybe even greater Melbourne. Because really, what’s life without a challenge? Downright prosaic if you ask me. 
Written by Joseph Cade | Published on January 30, 2025
