Leaving the Victorian coast we are heading home to Brisbane through the Wimmera Mallee district of western Victoria. Our trail takes us from Nelson north-east to Horsham and then to the small town of Rupanyup. Rupanyup is the starting point of the Silo Art Trail, which heads basically north for 200 km to Patchewollock. Along the way we passed through a number of small towns in the grain belt of Victoria. The fields of wheat and barley just stretch as far as the eye can see. The radio told us that it is not a great season for the farmers, greatly diminished crop sizes.

Fields of barley as far as one can see!

Giving thanks for rain.

A hay bale becomes a Christmas decoration and competition.

Back in the 1930s and 1940s these towns were thriving centres of agriculture and each town had its own silo storage facilities linked by railway lines to the coast for export and domestic processing. A number of these facilities in recent years have been decommissioned and lie idle. So an enterprising group set about having artists paint them, as well as some operating silos, with images representative of the districts.  In the main these works are of people who have lived and worked in the areas over many years. They are really good! The stories behind the works are very interesting and can be found at http://www.siloarttrail.com on the internet. This painting of silos is a bit of a trend as there are a good number of others scattered around the country where the same thing has been done.

I am just putting the photos in the blog! The names below each are the small towns where they can be found.

Rupanyup

Brim

Sheep Hills

Rosebery

Patchewollock

Lascelles

We have now reached Hay and are in a free camp at Sandy Point beside the Murrumbidgee River just on the outskirts of town for the night, it is good spot to stay.

Under the trees at Sandy Point.

The beach at Sandy Point on the Murrumbidgee River.

We will continue the journey home in the morning.