First stop this morning is the Murtoa Stick Shed. We read that until the outbreak of World War 2 Australia typically exported around sixty percent of its wheat to Great Britain and Western Europe. The War thus caused a glut, and the Stick Shed was thrown up in only four months in late 1941 and early 1942 to store some of the excess.
We watch a short video presentation before entering the structure. Its massive - 265 metres long, 60 metres wide, and nearly twenty metres high at its highest point. The roof is supported entirely by 560 slender mountain ash poles, which are thought to have been salvaged from Victorias infamous 1939 bushfires. According to the ever reliable Wikipedia its often claimed to be the largest rustically built structure on the planet. There was apparently no shortage of workers willing to help in its construction – mainly farmers and itinerants still wandering rural areas looking for work after the Depression. The holes that the poles sit in were all hand dug. They were only about a metre deep and the poles werent concreted in, so when the wind blew strongly some of them
came clean out of the ground. The structures so flexible that its sometimes referred to as a stick tent. It was only supposed to last for ten years, but here it is 80 years on still looking extremely solid; well flexibly solid. It was eventually taken out of service in 1989 when it became too expensive to maintain. It was National Heritage Listed in 2014, and is the only one of 22 such structures that were built across the countrys wheat belts around the same time thats still standing.
Next stop is more silo art work at the small town of Rupanyup. Most of the other silos weve seen have been the tallest structures in town, but these ones are proving a bit harder to spot. Eventually we track them down next to the towns seemingly long since abandoned railway station. We hadnt suddenly gone blind; these silos really are much shorter than any of the others across. They also look suspiciously like theyre made out of steel rather than the customary concrete. We read that they were painted by a Russian mural artist and depict two local sporting team members – a netballer and an AFL
We continue on down the Highway. We slow down a few times for some short stretches of roadworks. Were glad were not still in South Australia. If we were the whole Highway would be a zone all the way from the border to Melbourne, and wed be getting home in about a weeks time, or at least thats how it would feel. It seems however that the South Australians might have at least one thing up on us Vics. Issy was having a lot of trouble getting her phone to charge while we were still in Victoria at the start of the trip. It then worked fine while we were in Crow Eater land, but now that were back in our home state its started playing up again. Her phones Chinese - a Huawei. She got it because its got a good camera, but were both now convinced that its got a microchip in it that the Chinese Governments using to monitor our every move and thought. I hope her charging issues cant be explained by the Chinese having managed to invade SA while we werent looking. I dont remember us having to show our passports at
We hit the Melbourne suburbs at peak hour, and to a standstill. We certainly haven‘t missed that.....
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