'We didn't have a plan': Transforming an old school bus into a tiny home

Doing things outside your comfort zone is one way to get to know your partner, and it seems like Ash Poulton and Matt Ealding have been doing that for most of their relationship.

Just six months after they got together they bought an old Nissan Civilian bus, and started transforming it into a home on wheels they could drive on a lap of Australia.

They fixed up the former school bus – which they bought as an empty shell for $10,000 – at their home on the Gold Coast and at Poulton’s family’s farm in Kilcoy, while both worked full-time jobs to save for the trip. 

Nearly everything they used for the conversion was recycled, including a $50 kitchen from Gumtree, odds and ends from friends’ garages, and leftovers from job sites where Ealding, a carpenter, was working. 

They had finally just hit the road in March 2020 when COVID was suddenly shaking up everyone’s lives. 

Determined to do their trip, the couple drove north. 

“We didn’t really have a plan then, just figuring out our new tiny home and all that comes with it,” Poulton says. “COVID didn’t really affect us that much, as heading north kept us out of busy cities and towns.”

It did restrict them to their home state of Queensland for longer than they might have otherwise stayed, but the couple turned that into an opportunity to get off the beaten track and spend more time in areas they loved. 

“We’ve seen some pretty amazing places,” Poulton says. 

The highlight so far? 

The couple had the opportunity to “babysit” an island, spending six weeks as caretakers on Restoration Island, off the east coast of Cape York Peninsula. 

“That was an experience of a lifetime, just us on the island during wet season with some wild weather and some glass out days, a dingo … and a resident croc cruising out the front.”

Their bus had to be parked while they used a boat to access the island, but they’ve been travelling for 22 months now and the 1998-model Civilian, which they’ve nicknamed Seeka, has reliably carried them from Far North Queensland across the Northern Territory and now into northern Western Australia. 

It has handled water crossings and corrugated gravel tracks better than anyone expected. 

“The bus is a weapon,” Poulton says, “and is constantly surprising us.” 

While their lifestyle might sound like an adventure holiday, Poulton and Ealding say spending almost two years in remote regions has fundamentally changed them. 

Out of necessity, they’ve learned to be adaptable and resilient, and they understand they can rely on each other when it’s just the two of them (and their travel companion, Louie the dog).

Poulton jokes they’ve become “MacGyvers”, having to problem-solve how to repair things using whatever’s at hand. 

“You can’t just pop down to the shop and get something new if it’s broken,” she says. Instead, they learn from others, or from YouTube, fostering a “you’ll be right” attitude. 

That mindset also applies to finding work in remote areas. 

“Work is everywhere if you’re willing to do it,” Poulton says, even though it’s very different to the corporate work she used to do. “We’ve worked on syntropic farms, we’ve done painting, roofing, tiling, sheeting, housekeeping, landscaping – anything, really.”

Poulton and Ealding have no desire to go back to the urban life they left behind. The further they get from the cities, “that love for remoteness keeps growing” and they’re looking forward to what they will see in 2022. 

“We will absolutely keep travelling. We haven’t done the full lap yet – we still have the majority of the west and across the bottom, and the centre – so long as the bus is cruising, we will be too.” 

They are keeping their eyes peeled for somewhere remote that they can eventually put down some roots. 

“Next we are heading to Exmouth, Shark Bay and Ningaloo – but we’re on the hunt for a little slice of paradise to call our own. Just got to get to all the places first.”