From above, it would seem a UFO has landed in the far-north Queensland rainforest.
The structure is out of this world but not in the way it first appears. It is an architectural family home and a jaw-dropping addition to the Aussie prestige property market.
The location – where the Daintree, the world's oldest rainforest, meets the Great Barrier Reef – is as extraordinary as the two-level, open-air design.
At 3726 Cape Tribulation Road in Cape Tribulation – about two-and-a-half hours by car from Cairns, or 30 minutes if you take a helicopter – the house is for sale through Queensland Sotheby's International Realty Port Douglas and set for an auction on October 12.
And yes, it has a private helipad.
In the press over the years, the six-bedroom, off-grid estate has variously – and affectionally – been dubbed a "starship" and a "spaceship house".
Designed by award-winning architect Charles Wright, it is named Alkira Resort House and was conceived to magically muddle the boundaries between inside and outside living.
The floorplan fans out from a central pavilion, with lakefront balconies hovering over a like (which nurtures its own ecosystem), reaching into the UNESCO-listed tropical landscape.
It is coddled by 30 hectares of ancient beachside forest, on title, including 600 metres of secluded ocean frontage. And yet top restaurants and the best of the region's attractions are only minutes away.
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Sotheby's agents Lynn Malone and Barbara Wolveridge are taking care of the campaign.
"Fully furnished and equipped to comfortably accommodate 12 overnight guests, the six cantilevered wings are suspended over an engineered lake ecosystem then unified by a show-piece swimming pool gloriously illuminated at dusk," the listing explains.
"The interiors with easy-care polished concrete floors throughout are complemented by cascading waterfalls and a landscaped courtyard creating an oasis conducive to relaxation and rejuvenation."
Under Queensland consumer regulations, a property that is going to auction cannot carry an advertised price guide.
Malone tells Nine that the market will decide, given there is nothing else like it in the world, when the hammer falls at a Sotheby's auction gala in Brisbane. Alkira is one of several prestige homes that will be offered that night.
Public records show it last sold for $4 million in 2016 and for $1,725,000 a decade earlier.
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Malone tells Nine Alkira is a "retreat in every sense". The new owner will cross the walkway, over turtles, fish and waterlilies, within 180 million-year-old rainforest.
"In Melbourne, luxury could be considered a property in Toorak, and in Sydney, it could be in Mosman or Vaucluse – this is another dimension of luxury," she says.
The property was completed in 2013 and within 12 months has won a string of local, national and international design accolades.
"Who else could top this? How would you ever do it again?" Malone says.
Interest in the property is likely to include overseas-based buyers, especially those with deep enough pockets in Singapore and Hong Kong, and the Silicon Valley elite who are residing in places like Texas, Malone says, tapped into through the agency's global network.
Property News: How this three-bedroom home sold for $120,000.
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