Sunshine Coast Hinterland Times

Heavenly Express renovated

Carol Curtis had a dream to create an eco-friendly retreat on the Range. She got her chance six years ago when she purchased a peaceful 25 acre hillside block at the end of Corks Pocket Road, Maleny.

With a head full of ideas, Carol set about transforming this bush block into what is today a wonderfully inviting retreat that some might call eccentric, and she calls eclectic. At its centre is an 18 metre long vintage railway carriage that originally ran from Adelaide on the Glenelg line
With laughter Carol describes her single-minded intention to make her dream a reality, with only a few thousand dollars and a lot of determination. As an owner-builder she used local tradesmen to create a low set Queensland home on top of a 63,000 gallon concrete water tank. She is totally self sufficient in power with an impressive array of 40 solar panels and water storage of 85,000 gallons. She says with some pride, “People come to stay here and are surprised when I tell them to feel free to have a bath or a long shower.”
.The decision to buy the carriage and convert it into opulent accommodation called ‘The Heavenly Express’ typifies Carol’s off-beat approach to life.  Heaven in the Hills is not your average guest house or B + B. In fact, it is a group retreat centre with a spacious conference/function facility. It attracts groups from the corporate sector for team building or future planning, carers groups and cancer survivors in need of respite, workshops such as yoga retreats and a great variety of social and family groups. In between these group functions it is also utilised as a cool mountain escape for individuals, couples and families.

One of the two Heavenly Express carriage suites

“With a cottage and two cabins built, I still needed more accommodation to complete the conference centre and cater for the group market. The train carriage was a good idea at the time” says Carol,” it was meant to be an interesting but economic way of adding extra accommodation.” Two and a half years later she breathes a sigh of relief that it’s finally settled into its bushland setting, and she prefers to forget the cost and tensions of getting it there.
“The carriage was built in 1912 for the Glenelg line in South Australia”, says Carol. “It was removed from service in the late 1980s and was badly water damaged, with a sagging roof, rotting floor and just an outline of the walls and window openings. It underwent a modernisation overhaul in the 1930’s, when air scoops and lining were added to the roof and it was really exciting when I pulled out the particle board overlay and found the original curved tongue and grooved pine ceiling and skylight windows.”

Original carriage before its renovation and removal from Sydney

Carol calls her style eclectic and there are certainly touches of English country garden, French provincial, Aussie bush and splashes of colourful tile mosaicing on the inside and outside of the buildings. She says that the overall feel she has tried to create is ‘enchantment’. An escape from the homes people live their day to day lives in. 
“Purchased in Sydney, the carriage arrived at Heaven on an expandable semi trailer. Two 12 tonne cranes were used to complete the journey and lower it onto its footings.
Carol got a builder to live on site while she painstakingly renovated the carriage using silky oak panelling and carefully recreated the original decorative trims overlaying the new timber windows. A tasteful extension houses utilities areas and verandahs.

Carol Curtis

Step inside the Heavenly Express and you are transported back 100 years to the elegance of Edwardian Adelaide, or perhaps lost in a mysterious journey on the ‘Orient Express’, its’ close cousin.  It’s hard to remember you’re in the Australian bush, until the rustle in the grass reveals a wallaby with a joey in her pouch, enjoying the lush undergrowth. 
With a laugh Carol claims  “Heaven is at the end of the road” which pretty well sums up this dream-come-true for Carol Curtis’ at Heaven in the Hills.