Wimmera – Silo Art Trail

The Wimmera Silo Art Trail is planned to be 200km long and lies within the Wimmera Mallee Region. The Wimmera is a large, flat region in the North West of Victoria, regarded as Victoria’s agricultural heart.   A significant proportion of the world’s wheat and barley is produced in the Wimmera. The wheat silos dominate the landscape of every town, small and large. 

Horsham Overnight

We drove up from Melbourne the day after Boxing Day, staying overnight in Horsham near the start of the Wimmera Silo Art Trail. The weather in Melbourne had been somewhat erratic, with a scorching hot Christmas day and a mild and wet Boxing Day. Driving up, we had rain on and off all day, but the temps were still pleasant. Leaden grey skies are not my favourite photographic background, though, and we had our fingers crossed we would get blue skies the further north we drove.

Grey Skies

We woke to more grey skies, and it rained the following day. The weather forecast was rain and high winds. Loading up the car in the rain as we booked out, it looked like we would have a wasted trip. I wanted fields of yellow grass and blue skies! Leaving Horsham, we passed through Dooen and Jung and stopped briefly to shoot the silos. Our goal was to shoot as many silos as possible.

wimmera silo art trail
Dooen In The Rain

Just after leaving Dooen, the heavens opened. We were photographing train tracks and silos in the rain, attracting confused looks from cars driving past.

windy wimmera weather
Yes, it was windy!
rail tracks at Dooen
Rail Tracks near Dooen

From Dooen, we drove to Jung, a tiny town with a population of 246 and just 18 km northeast of Horsham. The name came from the Parish of Jung Jung, derived from an Aboriginal expression of uncertain meaning but ingloriously recorded as meaning a big mess in some places.

Wimmera - Silo Art Trail
At Jung - Wimmera - Silo Art Trail
Tracks and silo at Jung
Murtoa

While still a small town, it was much bigger than tiny Jung and boasted a population of 991 in the 2011 Census. Murtoa comes from a local Aboriginal word meaning “home of the lizard”. The silos at Murtoa can hold 400,000 tonnes of grain and is Australia’s largest inland receival centre. Before long, we were getting occasional breaks in the cloud. Then, finally, we were getting some sun and patchy blue skies!

Murtoa Wimmera - Silo Art Trail
Rapunyup

Next stop, we were heading to Rapunyup. The name is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘branch hanging over the water.   With a population of 549, we weren’t expecting a metropolis. But Rapunyup, like the towns before it, was deserted. I beg to differ on the “town with a pulse”. We started to feel like we were heading the wrong way. Had everyone left town for the city? Had there been a warning of an approaching zombie apocalypse?

Wimmera - Silo Art Trail Rapunyup
Welcome to Rapunyup
Rapunyup station
The silos near the disused station are earmarked as part of the Silo Art Trail.

Leaving Rapunyup behind, we headed to Minyup.  While Minyip has no painted silo and isn’t part of the Wimmera Silo Art Trail, it’s a town you must go past to get to Sheep Hills. With a population of 667, Minyip’s claim to fame is the town where they shot the Flying Doctors TV series, with the senior citizens centre becoming ‘coopers crossing flying doctors base’. ‘Minyip’ means ‘ashes’ in the language of the local Aborigines.

Wimmera - Silo Art Trail
Silos at Minyip

We left Minyip and headed for Sheep Hills with a quick stop at the Nullen Sidings. By now, we had glorious blue skies and puffy white clouds, and the temperature was climbing and sitting at around 35C.  

Sheep Hills

Sheep Hills had a population of 189 in 2006, and no population was recorded in 2011. Not sure what the significance of putting a silo there is. Graincorp, the owner of all the silos, closed the Sheephills silos in 2003, so maybe that is why there is no population there anymore. The Wimmera silo art trail starts at Sheep Hills, as Rapunyup wasn’t ‘online’ yet. The Sheep Hills silos are painted by Matt Adnate, an internationally renowned Melbourne artist. Matt is well-known for the indigenous portraits on walls and canvas.

Sheep Hills Wimmera - Silo Art Trail
Wimmera - Silo Art Trail Sheep hills
sheep hills

Our next stop after Sheep Hills was Warracknabeal for lunch and a stretch of the legs. The weather was a balmy 38C with blue skies. While Warracknabeal was a much larger town, it still had a closed-up look about it the day we were there. Nevertheless, we found one fish and chip shop open and enjoyed a delicious lunch.

Then we headed off again towards the next one with a quick stop at Galaquil to shoot each other on the deserted rail line. We were thanking our planning on bringing insect nets for our hats. We learnt very quickly to put them on BEFORE getting out of the car. The flies descended in their millions as soon as we got out, though; for the pics below, we sucked it up and worked quickly 😉

Brim
Wimmera - Silo Art Trail Brim
Brim Silos

With a population of around 260, no pub, no school, Brim is a tiny town on the Henty Highway just north of Warracknabeal. The locals hope the tourists will come now that they have the silos. Painted by Brisbane artist Guido Van Helton, they were the first silos to be painted. The silo was initially planned to be the only one. However, such interest in them was that five more towns were added, and the Silo Art Trail was born.

Between Brim and Patchewollock, we drove into Beaulah, another silo, another abandoned railway line with a quietly decaying station. The insect net and hat went on, and we wandered around the station, giving the crystal ball a workout.

Patchewollock
Wimmera - Silo Art Trail Patchewollock
Patchewollock

We were nearing Sea Lake, our overnight destination. Our last stop before our evening destination was Patchewollock. The silo’s here were painted by Fintan Magee, and like the Brim silo, they depict a local farmer. A tiny town on the edge of the Big Desert in the Mallee, it’s reportedly to have a population of 431, but I have my doubts. Unfortunately, Patchewollock had a couple of closed stores, a park and no internet access. This was a minor disaster because we relied on our phones for navigation. It necessitated a drive back in the opposite direction for about 30 km to reconnect, get Sea Lake on Google Maps, turn around, and head back again.

Sea Lake

When we arrived at Sea Lake, the temperature was firmly settled at 40C. We were booked into the Sea Lake Motel, but they had lost power with the high winds that afternoon, so the aircon hadn’t been on long. As a result, the room was just as hot inside as out. Before leaving our room, we ensured the aircon was running well and went to the pub for dinner. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the aircon on either. I don’t think they had aircon, period. Meals were typical country fare (deep-fried and overcooked), but the beer and wine were cold and cheap.

Sea lake hotel
SeaLake Hotel

Following dinner, we headed to Lake Tyrell. The lake was just about dry, with a few puddles too far off to reach. The wind was blowing a gale. I set the tripod up but hung onto it for dear life to stabilise it. I managed a couple of shots of the setting sun before I gave up and dived back into the car’s safety.

Dimboola
pink salt lake dimboola
Dimboola

The following day was overcast again with showers. We were heading back to Melbourne via Jeparit and Dimboola. The Dimboola pink salt lake is just beautiful, and while we did stop at a few other small silo towns on the way, we were under the pump to get to the airport for my travelling photographer friend to catch her flight home. We ended up getting there with about 20 minutes to spare. Fortunately for her, her flight was delayed due to the storm that hit us as we drove down.

Wimmera - Silo Art Trail

 We covered just over 1,000 kms, driving through wind, rain, blazing temps, storms, and flies. Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any snakes. If you decide to do the Silo Art Trail Rapanyup, Lascelles and Rosebery will be completed by mid-2017. Make sure you have hats, sunscreen, bug spray, insect nets for your hats, and lots of water and snack supplies in the car. 

pink salt lake dimboola

A lot of the little towns aren’t exactly open for business. So, keep an eye on the fuel gauge. Many towns don’t have a petrol station, so fill up in Horsham, Sea Lake and Dimboola. And take a map, as your phone maps won’t work in Patchewollock.  (Then you’ll be in the middle of nowhere without a clue like we were).

our travel route on the silo art trail
Next Cape Schanck Lighthouse, Rosebud

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© Bevlea Ross