Contributors
Write for us
We commission and consider guest essays from builders, architects, landscape designers, timber scientists and unusually attentive homeowners.
What we publish
A Designer Decks essay is long enough to be useful — a thousand words is the floor, not the ambition — and specific enough that a reader on a Brisbane slope or a Perth limestone block can act on it. We prefer reported craft to trend copy. If your piece could run in any country with the proper nouns swapped, it is not for this desk.
The brief
- Australian English. Metres, hardwood names, NCC language, council — not IRC and pressure-treated SYP.
- Original work. We will not rewrite a manufacturer PDF or a press release.
- No legal or engineering advice dressed as certainty. Point to the standard; do not impersonate a certifier.
- Declare conflicts. If a mill, brand or builder paid for the trip, say so.
- Images must be yours, Creative Commons or public domain, with credits attached.
Links and sponsorship
Navigational links on this site are ordinary editorial links. Any paid placement, gifted coverage or guest-post commercial URL is published with rel="sponsored". We do the same in house: when an essay points at a manufacturer's own site as a commercial reference — for example Trex composite decking — that outbound link is marked sponsored. A mention is not a recommendation, and a recommendation is not a secret advertisement.
How to pitch
Send a 150-word pitch, a working title, and two published clips — or a sample paragraph if you have not been published — through the contact form, using the subject “Guest essay”. Do not attach a finished 3,000-word draft on first contact unless we have asked for it. We reply when the idea is a fit; silence after three weeks is a pass.
Before you write, read the editorial standards and a hub that matches your subject: materials, design, build, care or outdoor living.