Tag:brim

wimmera silo art trail

Outback Road Trip Day Two – St Arnaud

Day two of our road trip saw us head off early from St Arnaud. We were travelling the Silo Art Trail on our way to Sea Lake.

Rupanyup
Rupanyup Silo
Rupanyap Silo

The first stop of the day was Rupanyup, 63kms to the east of St Arnaud. Twin steel silos painted by Russian artist Julia Volchkova in 2017 depict two young people, Ebony, who plays in the local netball team and Jordan, a footballer.

Sheep hills
sheep hills silo
Sheep Hills by Adnate

Starting our run North, the second stop was 36kms up the road at Sheep Hills. Painted by Matt Adnate in 2016, it depicts Wergaia elder Uncle Ron Marks and Wotjobaluk Elder Aunty Regina Hood. Between them are two children, Savannah Marks and Curtly McDonald. Adnate’s artwork celebrates the area’s indigenous culture, and his depiction of the night sky represents the ‘dreaming’ element and highlights the strong ancestral connection indigenous children share with their elders.

brim
brim silo
Brim silo by Guido Van Helten

Heading off again, our third stop was Brim, another 42 kms up the road. The Brim silo, completed in 2016, was the first one to be painted in Victoria and the second in Australia after Northham, WA. Following the completion of the Brim silo, the town enjoyed newfound energy and optimism through the widespread attention towards Brim and the Wimmera, from both local and international media. It was from the success of the Brim silo that the Silo Art Trail was born. Guido’s work depicts four anonymous farmers, three men and one woman.

Rosebery
rosebery silo
Rosebery by Kaff-eine

Just a short 24kms up the road, we came to Rosebery. Completed in 2017 by Kaff-eine, her artwork on the left depicts a female sheep farmer in a workshirt and cowboy boots. On the right is a horseman and his mount. The horseman wears an Akubra hat, bogs boots and oilskin vest – common attire for mallee farmers.

Patchewollock
patchewollock silo
Patchewollock by Fintan Magee

Our next stop was Patchewollock. At 63 kms further north, it’s the longest distance between silos. As you drive down the road with endless flat fields and huge open skies on either side of you, you can’t help but reflect on the isolation of the land, the lack of ‘city’ conveniences and the continual hardships the farmers endure against droughts and fires. Patchewollock silo depicts local farmer Nick “noodle” Hulland. Completed in 2016, it shows the archetypal Aussie farmer in a faded blue flannelette shirt and worn jeans.

Fintan painted him with a solemn expression and squinting gaze to embody the harshness of the environment and the challenges a mallee farmer faces.

lascelles

From Patchellwock, it’s 50 kms south to Lascelles. With no breakfast, and 3 hours on the road, our tummies were rumbling, and we were looking forward to getting to our lunch stop. But, while close, Lascelles wasn’t it. Painted by Rone in 2017, its subjects are a local couple Geoff and Merrilyn Horman, part of a family who has lived and farmed the area for four generations.

Woomelang
woomelang general store
Carpet Python on wall of Woomelong General Store by Andrew Bourke a.k.a. Sirum

A short 15kms further south from Lascelles is Woomelang (pop 150!). Our lunch stop. Being so far away from a major town, we weren’t expecting a sumptuous lunch. Still, given they promote the Woomelang “cafe” and its python mural, its closeness to the silo trail, and the fact that they have a ‘field bin’ trail within the town, we did expect a reasonably passable cafe. No. It’s a general store, combined with a post office and an opp shop that also sells fried food and pizzas. We settled for a potato cake and a couple of dimmies and sat outside as there was no tables or chairs inside.

Field Bins

The young Vice President of the Woomelang and District Development Association, Joe Collins (19 yrs old), had originally wanted their silo included in the trail. But, being privately owned, it couldn’t be included. He then came up with the idea for street art on the general store wall to boost the economy. Locals thought he had been in the sun a bit too long. Determined to forge ahead, he contacted Juddy Roller, who had started the silo art trail and was put in touch with Sirum. Sirum came back with a draft idea of the endangered carpet python.

A town meeting was called, and while many locals were against the idea of a snake on the wall, Joe prevailed. Once the python was painted and tourists started calling into town, the opposition vanished, and the townsfolk started looking at more ways to bring visitors to the town. They liaised with the Wimmera Catchment Authority, and eight new endangered animals were chosen to grace eight mobile field bins. Call into the general store to pick up a map. I would, however, suggest taking a cut lunch with you, rather than buying from the “cafe”.

Before leaving Woomelang, we also stopped by the Shearing shed in Cronomby Tanks Rd. Built of compressed kerosine tins, it stands as a monument to bush ingenuity during the wartime shortage of building materials.

woomelang shearing shed
Woomelang Shearing Shed
Nullawil
nullawil silo
Nullawil by Smug

We had one more stop before reaching Sea Lake. Nullawil, 65kms south from Woomelang, is probably my favourite silo. Painted by Smug it features a farmer in an obligatory checked flannel shirt and his mate a black and tan Kelpie.

Sea Lake
sea lake silo
Sea Lake by Drapl and the Zookeeper

Turning north again, we covered the last 50 km to arrive at Sea Lake and the end of our days driving. The Sea Lake silo features a young girl on a swing looking over Lake Tyrell. Painted over three weeks in 2019, the silo embodies the wide-open sky of Lake Tyrell, the indigenous name of which is ‘Tyrille’ meaning ‘space opening to the sky’. After viewing the silo, we drove around town, capturing the murals on walls of stores. We didn’t go to Lake Tyrell before dinner, as our group were booked to do that on the sunset tour. Both decisions turned out to be huge mistakes—more on that in the next post.

Days End

After leaving St Arnaud around 8 am, we had made it to Sea Lake by 3.30 pm and covered the entire silo trail plus Woomelang and its field bins in 407 kms. We booked into Sea Lake Motel and dinner at the Royal Hotel. The old pub, built in 1910, burnt down in 2017. The only other pub in town had closed, and drastic action was called for. You can’t have a pub with no beer or a town with no pub. Locals started the Royal Hotel Co-op at $5000 per share and raised enough money to purchase the old pub. Seven months and 28 loads of rubbish to the tip later, the pub reopened in June 2019, providing 16 local jobs staffing the hotel.

our route day two
Our route, Day Two
Coming up next Sunday: Day Three is off to Mungo NP

© Bevlea Ross