Genius shopkeeper uses 1958 wreck - found in obscure Tassie town - as decor (2025)

Maybe there's other creative newsagency owners in Australia - but we bet there's only one who's parked an entire truck in the middle of their store.

Ravi Teja Varma, the new owner of Newstead newsXpress, is known for going all out on shop decor.

He's previously turned Prospect Vale Marketplace News from a traditional newsagency into an eclectic combination of vintage and vanguard that's "relevant to 2025".

But this time, he's gone to new levels.

In February, he tracked down a rusting 1958 Bedford truck in a remote part of Northern Tasmania.

The truck had sat abandoned for years on a family farm in Upper Blessington - a town of just 60 people - but when Mr Varma arrived to buy it, its days out of the spotlight were over.

Mr Varma employed Launceston fabrication company One Fab to slice the truck into six sections - so it could get through the door - and reassemble it inside overnight.

Electricians hooked up the truck's headlights, and his staff set to work making it the store's centrepiece.

And now, Newstead newsXpress may well be the only shop in Australia that stocks a literal truckload of jigsaw puzzles.

"I went [to the farm] and told them 'this truck will be in the newsagency'," Mr Varma said.

"[The owner] was also excited it was going for a good purpose - 'so many people would love to see the truck' - so he gave it to me. It's been on their farm for a long time."

The truck is just one part of a major overhaul that began when Mr Varma took over the business around Christmastime.

Customers have been fascinated by a McBain bicycle - made by the famous Tasmanian family business and believed to be from the 1950s - that stands at the rear of the store.

Sixty cassette tape covers line the newsagency's office door, and the tapes themselves have been glued together and repurposed as stationery holders.

Mr Varma's creative flair has also spread through to the adjoining News Cafe on David, and he hopes the changes will take the business to a new level.

"We thought it would be an easy transition first ... but it took a lot of efforts, and I thank all my staff who did a really good job. I've got good staff," he said.

"Slowly people are coming and they're really happy with how we're doing things inside the store and the coffee shop.

"But still I want all the old customers to ... see how the newsagency has changed in the past four months."