Converted train carriage turned tiny house in Daylesford a minimalist’s dream

 It seems that half the non home-owning population of Melbourne has given up on the quarter-acre block (or even one-bedroom apartment) and have “tiny house” and “VanLife” on the tip of their tongues.

It’s all good in theory, but anyone who’d watched a tiny house doco will know there are certain obstacles: building one, for instance. Then finding a place to put it. #VanLife is all good, but you still usually need to convert it yourself (it literally gave my neighbours, now on the road in their converted Renault, headaches), and park it.

But what about #TrainLife? And what if the train carriage already had a place, in a popular destination town, and had been renovated, with everything you could need? And what if it’s on the market? Meet 1 Argus Road, Daylesford.

The house is a converted circa 1928 train carriage. Photo: Hocking Stuart

It’s a circa 1928 railway carriage, on its own title, with its own electricity and water supply, kitchen and bathroom, and it’s advertised for $249,000. You could say goodbye to #VanLife, too, as, really, who would want to leave Australia’s spa capital? Hepburn Springs Bathhouse & Spa is down the road, it’s about an hour and a half from Melbourne, and surrounded by large parks.

Even better, (if that matters to the minimalist), 1 Argus Road is a money-maker. According to the Hocking Stuart real estate agent selling it, Annissa White, it does a roaring holiday trade. She calculated a gross return of $16,000 per annum. That’s a fair side-hustle.

“Most potential buyers are interested in the carriage for an investment and to take advantage of the Daylesford holiday market,” White says. “They would use the carriage for their own time spent up here and enjoy the benefits of an income at the same time.”

What about living in it? Before vendor Kay Dawson bought the property (the carriage was part of a larger property, which she is keeping), it was inhabited. “It was rented out on a long lease to a woman, and she lived there for at least a year, and was quite happy there… Whilst it’s small, it’s got everything you need,” she says. How small? The block is 145 square metres, which, as Dawson says, is small for Daylesford.

Dawson and her partner spent a fair bit of time living in the carriage themselves while working on the rest of the property. “It was our base,” she says. “And we absolutely loved it. It’s got amazing character. It’s really cozy and has a great little vibe. It’s like a cozy little nest. It’s got this stunning curved wooden ceiling, and beautiful wooden floorboards. It’s a really charming place to stay, and we really enjoyed the time that we could spend there.”

She’s subdivided the block now and given the carriage — a ZL guard van that would have travelled country Victoria back in the day — a facelift. “We’ve repainted and re-styled it: I wanted to give it a bit more character by bringing a Moroccan feel to it.”

It’s not entirely minimalist: it comes with reverse cycle air conditioning and a low maintenance “grass and pebbles” garden that takes advantage of a suntrap. What’s Dawson going to miss most? “How charming it is. You walk into it and it transports you completely from the everyday.”