Every now and then, we all need to switch off – not just from our phones, but from the traffic, the deadlines, the noise of city life. One of those off-grid, no-reception kind of escapes that allow us to breathe a little deeper, sleep a little longer and return home feeling fully refreshed. Looking for an excuse? Tiny Away just opened six new tiny homes across Victoria.
All about Tiny Away’s latest tiny homes
Launched in 2017, Tiny Away was born from a simple idea – to give city dwellers a chance to escape the grind and recharge in nature. Nine years and over 500 tiny homes later, and the Victoria-based company are welcoming six new additions to the family.
Each new tiny home promises seclusion in nature. (Image: Supplied)
While each retreat offers something different, they all share a few common characteristics. Primarily, a serene location that promises seclusion, privacy and full immersion in nature. Each one is crafted with sustainable materials, designed to not only respect its surroundings but enhance them. Compact by nature, the tiny homes also consume less energy and use fewer resources, guided by a leave-no-trace philosophy.
“These new additions underscore Tiny Away’s commitment to creating low-impact, high-experience stays," said cofounder Jeff Yeo. “From forest hideaways to coastal sanctuaries, each home is thoughtfully placed to nurture both nature and guest wellbeing."
Off-grid living meets luxury at each Tiny Away retreat. (Image: Supplied)
But going off-grid doesn’t have to mean roughing it. Despite being small in size, the tiny homes are thoughtfully equipped with modern comforts. Guests can enjoy a kitchenette with cooking essentials, split air-conditioning and a bathroom complete with toilet, hand basin and gas-heated shower.
Where are the six new tiny homes?
Tiny Away has retreats in both Australia and around the world, including all states bar the NT and ACT, as well as New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and Europe. Luckily for Aussies, the six new additions will be on home soil, in Victoria to be exact. Here’s where to find them.
Bush Serenity by the Sea
Stay in bushland just minutes from the sea. (Image: Supplied)
It’s all in the name here – think bird-filled bushland just minutes from the coast. Bush Serenity by the Sea can be found in Bolwarra, just under an hour’s drive from Port Fairy. Grab a coffee in the historic town of Portland before exploring local boutiques or tackling the Great South West Walk . It’s one of the country’s best spots for whale-watching during migration season, so keep your eyes peeled!
Hollow Mountain Getaway
Venture into the heart of Grampians National Park. (Image: Supplied)
The Grampians National Park is already home to one of the most spectacular road trips in Australia. Now, it boasts one of the most spectacular tiny homes, too. Hollow Mountain Getaway sits at the base of the park’s iconic Hollow Mountain – hence its name. The beautifully designed tiny home may tempt some to stay inside, but head outdoors to discover scenic lookouts, towering cliffs, local wildlife and Indigenous rock art.
Heartstone Hill
Take a dip in the pool with national park views. (Image: Supplied)
Perfect for nature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts, Heartstone Hill in Wensleydale is in a prime position for access to the Great Otway National Park. While the tiny home itself is stunning (and boasts a gorgeous pool), waterfalls, hiking trails and the towering giants of Redwood Forest all beckon. Foodies should also check out the boutique wineries and distilleries along the Otway Harvest Trail .
Golden Hour Hideaway
Each tiny home is designed to relax and recharge guests. (Image: Supplied)
Nestled in Glenlyon, a small town in the charming region of Daylesford, Golden Hour Hideaway is cradled by bucolic fields and rolling hills. Guests are encouraged to take full advantage of their bountiful surrounds, from the region’s destination hot springs to cellar door tastings and local markets. Don’t miss nearby Trentham Falls either, located in one of Victoria’s top towns of 2025.
Olive Sanctuary
Stay on a working olive grove in Victoria’s High Country. (Image: Supplied)
Just outside the town of Taggerty in Victoria’s High Country, you’ll find the Olive Sanctuary . This rustic-chic tiny home is situated on a working farm and olive grove, offering firsthand insight into real country living. Whether you choose to while the weekend away onsite and sample the farm’s harvest or explore nearby Cathedral Range State Park , guests are spoilt for choice.
Celestial Haven
Stargazers should book Celestial Haven in Toolangi. (Image: Supplied)
Celestial Haven isn’t deep in the forested region of Toolangi for no reason. With zero light pollution and uninterrupted views of the night sky, it was built with stargazers in mind. Whether you’re looking for the perfect base to watch the upcoming Perseid meteor shower or simply appreciate a star-studded sky, you’re in for a treat. Other drawcards include nearby vineyards, walking trails and the Healesville Sanctuary , home to a range of adorable native animals.
Bookings for all six new tiny homes, as well as other retreats across Australia, can be made via the Tiny Away website. Prices vary depending on location and date.
Taylah Darnell is Australian Traveller's Writer & Producer. She has been passionate about writing since she learnt to read, spending many hours either lost in the pages of books or attempting to write her own. This life-long love of words inspired her to study a Bachelor of Communication majoring in Creative Writing at the University of Technology Sydney, where she completed two editorial internships. She began her full-time career in publishing at Ocean Media before scoring her dream job with Australian Traveller. Now as Writer & Producer, Taylah passionately works across both digital platforms and print titles. When she's not wielding a red pen over magazine proofs, you can find Taylah among the aisles of a second-hand bookshop, following a good nature trail or cheering on her EPL team at 3am. While she's keen to visit places like Norway and New Zealand, her favourite place to explore will forever be her homeland.
The Grampians just might be the ultimate antidote for the metropolis, writes one returning Aussie ready to disconnect from the modern world and reconnect to the Great outdoors.
There are no kangaroos back in Chicago: they’re all here in the Grampians/Gariwerd . In the heart of the Grampians National Park’s main gateway town, Halls Gap, pods of eastern greys are eating grass beside my parked rental car beneath the stars. Next morning, when I see the backyard of my rented villa on the edge of town for the first time, there are kangaroos feeding beside a slow-moving creek, lined with river red gums.
Five hundred metres up the road, 50 or so of them are eating by the side of the road in a paddock. I pull over to watch and spot three emus. Yellow-tailed black cockatoos fly overhead towards the tall green mountains just beyond town.
‘Kee-ow, keee-oww’… their calls fuse with the maniacal cackle of a kookaburra (or 10). Gawd, how I’ve missed the sound of them. Far above, a wedge-tailed eagle watches, and there you go: the ‘great birds of Australia’ trifecta, all half a kay from the town limits.
Exchanging city chaos for country calm
The park is renowned for its significant diversity of native fauna species. (Image: Visit Victoria/Robert Blackburn)
I’ve come to the Grampians to disconnect, but the bush offers a connection of its own. This isn’t just any bush, mind you. The Grampians National Park is iconic for many reasons, mostly for its striking sandstone mountains – five ridges run north to south, with abrupt, orange slopes which tumble right into Halls Gap – and for the fact there’s 20,000 years of traditional rock art. Across these mountains there are more than 200 recorded sites to see, created by the Djab Wurrung, Jardwadjali and Gunditjmara peoples. It’s just like our outback… but three hours from Melbourne.
I’ve come here for a chance at renewal after the chaos of my life in America’s third-largest city, Chicago, where I live for now, at the whim of a relative’s cancer journey. Flying into Melbourne’s airport, it only takes an hour’s drive to feel far away from any concept of suburbia. When I arrive in Halls Gap two hours later, the restaurant I’m eating at clears out entirely by 7:45pm; Chicago already feels a lifetime ago.
The trails and treasures of the Grampians
Grampians National Park /Gariwerd covers almost 2000 square kilometres. (Image: Ben Savage)
Though the national park covers almost 2000 square kilometres, its best-known landmarks are remarkably easy to access. From my carpark here, among the cockatoos and kangaroos on the fringe of Halls Gap, it only takes 60 seconds’ driving time before I’m winding my way up a steep road through rainforest, deep into the mountains.
Then it’s five minutes more to a carpark that serves as a trailhead for a hike to one of the park’s best vantage points, The Pinnacles . I walk for an hour or so, reacquainting myself with the smells and the sounds of the Aussie bush, before I reach it: a sheer cliff’s edge lookout 500 metres up above Halls Gap.
Overlooking the vast Grampians landscape from Hollow Mountain. (Image: Robert Blackburn)
There are hikes and there are lookouts and waterfalls all across this part of the park near town. Some are a short stroll from a carpark; others involve long, arduous hikes through forest. The longest is the Grampians Peaks Trail , Victoria’s newest and longest iconic walk, which runs 160 kilometres – the entire length of Grampians National Park.
Local activities operator Absolute Outdoors shows me glimpses of the trail. The company’s owner, Adrian Manikas, says it’s the best walk he’s done in Australia. He says he’s worked in national parks across the world, but this was the one he wanted to bring his children up in.
“There’s something about the Grampians,” he says, as he leads me up a path to where there’s wooden platforms for tents, beside a hut looking straight out across western Victoria from a kilometre up in the sky (these are part of the guided hiking options for the trail). “There are things out here that you won’t see anywhere else in Australia.” Last summer, 80 per cent of the park was damaged by bushfire, but Manikas shows me its regrowth, and tells me of the manic effort put in by volunteers from town – with firefighters from all over Australia – to help save Halls Gap.
Spot wildflowers. (Image: Visit Victoria)
We drive back down to Halls Gap at dusk to abseil down a mountain under the stars, a few minutes’ walk off the main road into town. We have headlamps, but a full moon is enough to light my way down. It takes blind faith to walk backwards down a mountain into a black void, though the upside is I can’t see the extent of my descent.
Grampians National Park at sunset. (Image: Wine Australian)
The stargazing is ruined by the moon, of course, but you should see how its glow lights up the orange of the sandstone, like in a theme park. When I’m done, I stand on a rocky plateau drinking hot chocolate and listening to the Aussie animals who prefer nighttime. I can see the streets of Halls Gap off in the distance on this Friday night. The restaurants may stay open until 8pm tonight.
What else is on offer in The Grampians?
Travelling along the Wimmera River in Dimboola. (Image: Chris McConville)
You’ll find all sorts of adventures out here – from rock climbing to canoeing to hiking – but there’s more to the Grampians than a couple of thousand square kilometres of trees and mountains. Halls Gap may be known to most people, but what of Pomonal, and Dimboola, and Horsham? Here in the shadow of those big sandstone mountains there are towns and communities most of us don’t know to visit.
And who knew that the Grampians is home to Victoria’s most underrated wine region ? My disconnection this morning comes not in a forest, but in the tasting rooms and winery restaurants of the district. Like Pomonal Estate, barely 10 minutes’ drive east of Halls Gap, where UK-born chef Dean Sibthorp prepares a locally caught barramundi with lentil, pumpkin and finger lime in a restaurant beside the vines at the base of the Grampians. Husband-and-wife team Pep and Adam Atchison tell me stories as they pour their prize wines (shiraz is the hero in these parts).
Dine in a restaurant beside vines at Pomonal Estate. (Image: Tourism Australia)
Three minutes’ drive back down the road, long-time mates Hadyn Black and Darcy Naunton run an eclectic cellar door out of a corrugated iron shed, near downtown Pomonal. The Christmas before last, half the houses in Pomonal burnt down in a bushfire, but these locals are a resilient lot.
The fires also didn’t stop the construction of the first art centre in Australia dedicated to environmental art in a nature-based precinct a little further down the road (that’s Wama – the National Centre for Environmental Arts), which opened in July. And some of the world’s oldest and rarest grape vines have survived 160 years at Best’s Wines, outside the heritage town of Great Western. There’s plantings here from the year 1868, and there’s wines stored in century-old barrels within 150-year-old tunnels beneath the tasting room. On the other side of town, Seppelt Wines’ roots go back to 1865. They’re both only a 30-minute drive from Halls Gap.
Great Western is a charming heritage town. (Image: Griffin Simm)
There’s more to explore yet; I drive through tiny historic towns that barely make the map. Still part of the Grampians, they’re as pretty as the mountains behind them: full of late 19th-century/early 20th-century post offices, government offices and bank buildings, converted now to all manner of bric-a-brac stores and cafes.
The Imaginarium is one, in quirky Dimboola, where I sleep in the manager’s residence of an old National Australia Bank after a gourmet dinner at the local golf club, run by noted chef and teacher, Cat Clarke – a pioneer of modern Indigenous Australian cooking. Just south, I spend an entire afternoon at a winery, Norton Estate Wines, set on rolling calico-coloured hills that make me think of Tuscany, chit-chatting with owners Chris and Sam Spence.
Being here takes me back two decades, when I lived here for a time. It had all seemed as foreign as if I’d driven to another planet back then (from Sydney/Warrane), but there seemed something inherently and immediately good about this place, like I’d lived here before.
And it’s the Australian small-town familiarity of the Grampians that offers me connection back to my own country. Even in the better-known Halls Gap, Liz from Kerrie’s Creations knows I like my lattes with soy milk and one sugar. And while I never do get the name of the lady at the local Ampol station, I sure know a lot about her life.
Kookaburras are one of some 230 bird species. (Image: Darren Donlen)
You can be a local here in a day; how good is that? In Chicago, I don’t even know who my neighbour is. Though each day at dusk – when the kangaroos gather outside my villa, and the kookaburras and the black cockatoos shout out loud before settling in to sleep – I prefer the quieter connection I get out there in the bush, beneath these orange mountains.
A traveller’s checklist
Staying there
Sleep beside the wildlife on the edge of Halls Gap at Serenity .
