A very special day – it was a long
time coming. I'd wanted to visit here when I first found out about it
20+ years ago. For many of those years it was rarely open, and then
by private negotiation – too off-putting for me. But when I decided
to visit the painted silos at Brim, I thought I'd give this a try. I
was rewarded with information that it would be open for the Murtoa Big Weekend, 30 Sept. > 02 Oct. This whole trip was planned around
those dates.
And this is it ….
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| About 2/3 of the Stick Shed |
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| The rest of it |
When I walked into the Stick Shed at
Murtoa, tears came to my eyes. Two years ago I was in Barcelona,
visiting the Sagrada Familia … awesome! But I love the Stick Shed
more:
- the vast space – approx. 900ft (275m) long, 200ft (60m) wide and 60ft (18m) high in the centre
- the stillness - not too many tourists
here!
- the light – from skylights, no
electricity
- the ingenuity of farmers who built
this from corrugated iron, tree trunks, and quite thin metal bracing wires
It's a cathedral-like space, the
purpose of which was to store wheat that couldn't be exported because
of WWII.
Very few of the 560 Mountain Ash tree
trunks (straight from the bush) have been replaced with metal poles.
However, most have concrete reinforcing at the base, and a few have
metal supports. The poles (the “sticks” of the Stick Shed) were
put straight into the soil and have rotted over the years, some more
than others.
It was awe-inspiring. It took my breath
away. I took a lot of photos but not one of them does it justice. The
place is too big, for a start. You really do have to experience it.
But back to the start of the day. I
left Horsham after a good night's sleep and went back to Murtoa. The
Big Weekend was just getting underway with the main street closed
off, all sorts of stalls set up, the SES and CFA with hero volunteers and
vehicles in attendance. I bought some earrings and what I thought was
home-made jam but on closer inspection at home it's much more like the
product of a cottage industry. There was honey straight from the hive
but I'm not a huge fan of stringy-bark honey. And there was
silverbeet and rhubarb straight from the garden but I thought the
long drive home in a heated car wouldn't do them a lot of good. I did
buy some definitely home-made quiche which made for a delicious late
breakfast!
By then, opening time for the Stick
Shed had arrived so I hot-footed it (drove really!) over there at the
edge of town. At the risk of being boring, I'll say again how much I
loved it. Awesome, inspiring, breath-taking, vast, peaceful. But I
couldn't stay there forever.
Back again across the railway tracks, I took
in a few historical sights while waiting for the art show to open at
midday. An old buggy, seemingly abandonned to rot on a vacant lot, was the most impressive!
The water tower is apparently full of
historical items but I backed out on seeing all the dead birds,
animals, reptiles, you name it on the ground floor. Taxidermy might
be a skill – or even an art – but it's not for me.
Next door was the last remaining
building from an early Lutheran college plus the cap of the
belltower from a building that has long since disappeared. The latter
didn't make a lot of sense without a bell.
A quick up-and-down of the main street
showed that I was lucky to have arrived early. There was a jive
demonstration in progress, with live singer and band, but my main interest, the
produce, was all but sold out.
Around the corner, the art show was a
shambles. Well past opening time it finally opened. The quality of
the works was not a patch on what I'd seen in the Flinders Ranges and
the second-hand artworks (yes, that's how they were described) were
an embarrassment. Time to hit the road!
From Murtoa, it was pretty much a drive
straight home. Still plenty of water about.
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| Between Murtoa and Stawell |
I stopped at Stawell for a leg-stretch break plus
coffee and a strawberry lamington. While consuming those, I noticed a
sign in the cafe saying they were vanilla slice champions. Well … couldn't
resist that challenge, could I?! When I ate it later, it wasn't nearly as good
as the Birchip vanilla slices.
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| Stawell |
I had a quick stop at Ballarat too as
my accelerator knee was getting a bit stiff. Coffee there too – at Macca's. I
know, I know, the shame of it!
Then a pretty easy run on the home stretch. It
was good to be home again, safe and sound, 3,614 km and 241 L of
petrol later.
On reflection
.. This trip was an alternative to the
much more costly trip along the Canning Stock Route. I'd still love
to do that but being realistic …. Anyway, I've now learned first
hand, what others who've done the trip before me know … the
Flinders Ranges is a trip worth doing in its own right.
.. I had hoped to see the red earth of the
Kimberley but that was always unrealistic. The Flinders is not quite
so red and in any event, after an unusual amount of rain, plant life
was lush and green beyond any normal expectations. The Ranges had
their own beauty and I'm so glad I've seen it.
.. It would be good to go back and spend
more time in and around Burra and the Clare Valley rather than
whizzing through on the way to somewhere else. It's not so distant
that that's an impossibility. I'd love to stay in the Paxton Cottages
again!
.. I did manage to do and see all the
things I wanted to do in the Mallee, in spite of it Raining A Lot. The Mallee, in fact everywhere I
went, has also had an unusual amount of rain so being able to achieve
all that I wanted couldn't be taken for granted in the end.
.. All good.
.. Deo gratias.