TUESDAY MAY 9 (2)     SOME PAINTED SILOS

After we had set up and had a quick lunch it was time to go driving again.

But first to the local IGA supermarket, because John had decided he wanted hamburgers for tea. Whilst “up the street” I picked up a couple of tourist leaflets from outside the closed Information Centre.

Nearby Sheep Hills, a few kms south of town, was our first destination, to view the silo art.

What was now known as the Silo Art Trail had developed over the previous couple of years. Basically, there was a movement to get well-known and talented street artists to paint murals on disused grain silos, depicting something that relates to the local community or area. So there was at this time a sort of outdoor art gallery, in four towns, spread over some 200kms. Two more were planned for later this year. The concept seemed to have caught the imaginations of the travelling public, who were driving in significant numbers to see the silos. A similar thing was happening in SA.

John had wanted for a while to go back and visit the site of the second of the one-teacher schools he taught at in his early career. This was at Boolite, just down the road from Sheep Hills. Being in this area would give us a chance to do that and see two or three of the painted silos too.

The Sheep Hills silos were visible from some distance away, on the flat country. When we arrived there, found there were a couple of Council workers, in orange shirts, mowing and weeding around the silos, so any photos were likely going to include them!

Sheep Hills Painted Silos

Sheep Hills is rather in the middle of nowhere, so we were quite surprised that there were several other sets of visitors there, and more arrived whilst we were there. This was our first indication of how quickly the Silo Art Trail had gained a following.

Sheep Hills was the third silo installation to be painted, in December last year, by Adnate.

It features an aboriginal lady and man, and children, against a starry sky that is of significance to the local aboriginal peoples.

John shows the scale of this installation

It was really impressive. The scale alone was amazing, and the fact that an artist working close up could maintain the right lines and images on such a tall and curved structure. Brilliant.

There is no township at Sheep Hills. The now defunct Minyip to Warracknabeal railway came through here, hence the grain silos, now isolated. The railway station has disappeared. There is just a house near the silos, and at the nearby crossroads, what may have once been an inn or a hotel, with a house attached to that. It occurred to us that, with visitor numbers growing, the old inn might be a great venue for a café. It was rather a lovely old building and it was a shame to see it closed up and neglected.

This hotel would have served the surrounding community, back when the district operated at a different scale. The farms would have been smaller, without the huge and efficient machinery of today. Hence, there would have been more people. Foot, or horse transport meant that Minyip or Warracknabeal too far away for regularly required services like a school or a beer after work. There once would have been at least one general store as well.

Former hotel at Sheep Hills

We continued on down the little local road, to Boolite, another place where there is now nothing but paddocks. Even back in the 60’s, John had only nine students at the school.

We found the school site, marked by a sign, as are many of these former small school sites in the State.

School site Boolite

There was also a plaque commemorating the school’s one hundred years of operation, in 1979. A few months later, it was closed!

Centenary of Boolite School

John wandered about, looking, remembering, and taking photos. He had boarded for some months with a family at a house on the corner of a nearby road. There was no trace of this now.

The life of a young man in such a one-person school, in areas like this, had often been a rather difficult and lonely one, but it was seen as a necessary starting-out experience. Residences were not provided, with the Education Department relying on local families to board the teacher, in some fashion, often below what we would find acceptable these days.

John then decided he wanted to drive the back roads he used to take to go to Minyip, where he had boarded for a few months back then. We set off down a dirt track, but this soon led to a decent sealed road, which wasn’t there in his time, apparently. It made things easier now, from my viewpoint, as I was driving so he could look around.

Since we were at Minyip, decided we might as well continue on to Rupanyup and another silo art set. It was not far. However we did have some trouble locating the painted silo there. We were looking for a similar structure to that at Sheep Hills, like most silos one sees in the country towns in these parts. However, it turned out to be a lower metal structure and it took me a couple of passes up and down the main street to work out where to go. As the railway no longer exists, there was no guide from that.

This silo was painted in the first part of last year by a Russian street artist Julia Volchkova. It was monotone, compared to the bright colours of Sheep Hills, and I did not like it nearly as much. It seemed rather boring by comparison.

Rupanyup Painted Silos

The two figures on it represented a local netballer and footballer – the two staple club sports of country towns.

I was much more interested in the old railway station, nearby. It would once have been a substantial station building, but was now almost derelict.

Once was Rupanyup Railway Station

There was no railway now, of course. What a pity that some fitting use could not have been found for the structure.

Once was a railway line

John took over the driving again, and we made our way back to Minyip and then Warracknabeal.

Another “artistic” trend in these parts seemed to be to build representative installations on roundabouts. We had seen some in Warracknabeal that honoured working dogs and dingoes. In Minyip there was an installation meant to highlight the role of wheat in the district – a farmer kneeling down, and sprouting wheat grains. Unfortunately, the pale green “sprouts” made me laugh – they were very suggestive! I had to get a photo of that, and John drove a couple of times around the roundabout for me – somewhat to the mystification of a couple of locals.

It was almost 5pm by the time we got back to camp.

Roundabout at Minyip

John decided we should stay three nights here. He wanted to go look at the big farm machinery museum we saw on the edge of town, and there was still Brim to visit.

Whilst I was cooking the hamburgers, outside, in the electric frypan, a man came by to collect our camp fees.

After tea we watched Masterchef. The TV signal was regularly interrupted, whenever trucks went by on the nearby road!

It was another really cold night.

John took Couey out, on the lead, as usual before bed. There must have been a possum down out of the trees, because she just about pulled him over trying to run after whatever it was. Now we know to be careful and hang on tight both to dog and the handrail by the step down from Bus!