August 2018
Above: The Silos at Devenish
This particular Silo Trail starts at Goorambat some 20+kms North of Benalla and only a few Km North of our campground at Broken Creek.
The Silos at Tungamah were painted first in Feb 2018, followed by Goorambat (where the mural of Sophia also adorns the Methodist Church) and Devenish, which was completed just before Anzac Day and featured on many TV news broadcasts at the time.
Starting in our direction of travel the first was Goorambat where the Silos were painted by Jimmy D’Vate. D’Vate used about 150litres of acrylic paint and about 170 tins of spray paint for Goorambat’s two silos, painted over 17 days, some of which were up to 12 hours long.
The Main structure is a painting of Milli the Barking Owl which lives at Healesville Sanctuary, outside Melbourne. The rural scene painted on the second silo was an acknowledgement of the rural bush and farming landscape, which also included a bat, at the insistence of the locals.
Also in Goorambat is the painting of “Sophia”, the female representation of God, on the rear wall of the Methodist Church. Painted by renowned street artist Adnate as part of the 2017 Benalla Wall To Wall festival.
Next along the Trail is Devenish, featured on TV in the lead up to Anzac Day this year and painted by Melbourne artist Cam Scale over 11 days, it depicts two women, 100 years apart – a WWI nurse and a modern-day army medic. The town lost seven young men in the First World War out of 50 who signed up to serve and the community raised $20,000 to commemorate the town with the mural.
When returning to our campground we stopped here on the way back for Lunch at the Devenish Hotel as it was Frances’ birthday; great country Roast Lamb followed by Apple Pie and whipped cream – Yum!
The third and final destination was Tungamah, painted by WA artist Sobrane.
For Broome artist Sobrane, this was her first project on a silo but she has done other projects all over the globe.
‘‘Not on a silo — but I have done artwork on a 36m wall in Italy,’’ she said.
In addition to the Italy project, Sobrane has also completed street art in Broome and artwork on army bases in Port Hedland and Broome.
The small town of St James, between Devenish and Tungamah, population 91, is also organising for it’s Silos to be painted, probably before the end of this year (2018)…..watch this space..