Day 1, Dromana – Stawell

Even though we have driven along the North East Silo Art Trail in our home state of Victoria we had never been along the original Silo Art Trail in the Wimmera region. Finally we decided we would do it as a ‘shake down’ trip before we headed off to Queensland to escape some of Victoria’s wintry weather. Karen had even bought Mel a winter coat embellished with ‘#furbaby’ on it to keep her warm.

Not so sure Mel was that impressed.

Anyway, off we set one May morning. Our departure time enabled us to miss Melbourne’s notorious morning peak traffic. We had a good run through the city and over the Westgate Bridge

before joining onto the Western Highway. By the time we came to Bungaree, near Ballarat I noted that our Hilux was going to reach 20000 kms so Karen leaned over and took a snap of the odometer while I concentrated on the driving.

We made it to Stawell late in the afternoon and booked into the caravan park on the lake. We heated up some chicken curry I had cooked the day before for dinner.

Day 2, Stawell to Lascelles

The next morning was quite cold but we soon got moving. At one point the road out became very narrow. Pleased no trucks came towards us.

Murtoa

Our first stop was Murtoa. Here one can find a unique building – the Stick Shed. It’s a massive storage shed for grain that was built at the start of World War II when Australia was unable to export the bumper crops of wheat being grown due to Japanese ships blocking the route. When I say massive I mean lengthwise. It took two photos on wide angle lens to show you.

The rows upon rows of frame poles holding it up on the inside are made from timber sourced from all over Victoria but a lot of it came from the forests of the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne. In-between cable trussing. Here’s a couple of photos. It’s also a dog friendly attraction.

A small seated area to one side had a large screen TV detailing the history and construction process. After that we wandered to the far end. Here you could see the old conveyor belt that grain has been put onto to deliver it into the shed. 

Even though it’s over 80 years old the bush carpentry still stands up to the task today.

Next we drove to the Murtoa silo, where I guess grain is stored nowadays as it is next to the railway line. We had to look carefully and count the number of birds (almost) hidden in the design.

Rupanyup

Next up was Rupanyup, about 15 kms to the east. We parked near the silos in the old railway station car park. Not too many trains come through here nowadays!

The artwork on the silos shows two young locals. The colour palette is in keeping with the metal of the silos. The artist was Russian, Julia Volchkova. It was unveiled in 2017.

It’s also one of the stops on the local heritage trail.

As we walked into town we also found some fantastic chain saw sculptures. Not sure how one can cut so precisely with a chain saw.

After purchasing a hot drink from a food van we walked back to the car and headed off to the next location.

Sheep Hills

Driving north through Minyip to the next silo at Sheep Hills only took us about thirty minutes. To be honest, apart from the pub

and the beautiful silo art of local indigenous people created by renowned artist Adnate there wasn’t much to see.

Warracknabeal

From Sheep Hills we drove up a very skinny road to Warracknabeal, the largest town in the area. No silo art here but the roundabouts in the Main Street had sculptures of working dogs.

There was a bit of a history trail too. Here’s the information board on the Commercial Hotel.

Some of the now empty shops had fascinating information boards on the front of them.

We especially liked the old barber shop and the milk bar. Here’s the lovely old State Savings Bank building.

By the time we’d walked around town for a while it was lunchtime. So back to the caravan to make a sandwich which we ate with this lovely water view.

Brim

Brim is where the first silo art in Victoria was painted. It was only 21 kms to the north of Warracknabeal. Renowned Australian street artist Guido van Helten lived in the Brim farming community and painted the silos over the Christmas/New Year period of 2015-6. The art work shows four farmers of different generations, three blokes and one woman. Due to the extreme heat and dust storms most of it was painted late afternoon and early evening. Again we thought the colours used fitted in well with the silo construction material of Geelong cement.

Rosebery

A further 28 kms north we came to the silo art at Rosebery. Lots of space to park the Hilux and caravan while we had a look. In fact Karen and Mel stayed in while I hopped out and took a few photos of the work by Melbourne street artist Kaff-eine. She had painted a young female farmer and a young horseman.

Mel also thought she should come out too.

A detailed information board about crops grown in the Southern Mallee District was on display here too.

Lascelles

Driving through Hopetoun we reached the last silo for the day at Lascelles. Interestingly it was probably the first time all day when we had sunshine and a partly blue sky which made it glary and hard to take a decent photo of the silo art. The silos showed a farming couple. One silo had the man,

the other the woman. The principal artist was Rone. Also, Kaff-eine had been involved in this silo project and some other artwork in the town.

We noted time was moving on. Originally I’d thought we’d stop at Sealake. So I rang the caravan park, only to discover they were full. Now, that was opportune because as we drove away from the silos right in front of us were a few caravans parked in what looked like a small caravan park area. A couple were setting up their caravan so I jumped out and went over for a quick chat. Apparently you could pay $10 at the adjacent pub and get a powered site for the night. However water wasn’t available. Just as well we carry water with us in our two water tanks for drinking, showering and stabilisation purposes. It didn’t take long to stroll over to the Minapre Hotel and register and pay.

Soon after we were set up.

The amenities block was pretty basic but we loved the street art on it’s walls and also on the side of a nearby building.

More silo art coming up in the next post.