‘Cathedral of the Wimmera’: the wartime grain storage putting a small Victorian town on the map
The tiny Wimmera town of Murtoa sits on a pancake-flat plain. The main features, as you drive in, are the distant jagged outline of the Grampians on the southern horizon and three human-made structures: a painted grain silo, an old brick water tower, and the hulking figure of the Stick Shed.
The Stick Shed, also known as the cathedral of the Wimmera, was officially designated the Murtoa No 1 Grain Store when it was built in 1942. At 265 metres long and 60 metres wide, it’s the size of two soccer fields. The roof is held up by 580 thin mountain ash poles, reaching a height of 19 metres.
It is the only remaining of the 29 emergency grain stores built during the second world war, when Australia had a glut of wheat and international export routes were closed.
The huge structure was built in just three-and-a-half months using bush building techniques: the unmilled mountain ash poles, sourced from the Dandenongs and the Otway Ranges, were driven directly into the ground and the joints are held together with galvanised hoop iron, allowing it to move in the wind. It was designed to hold 3.5m bushels, or 92,500 tonnes, of wheat.
Mark Lieschke, who volunteers at the Stick Shed, says the structure made it difficult for workers tasked with handling the grain.
Historical image showing an internal view of Murtoa No 1 Grain Store, now known as the Stick Shed. Photograph: Stick Shed Committee of Management
“This was the only stick shed with a concrete floor, so that made it a bit easier, but they tried all manner of chuckers, blowers and throwers,” says Lieschke.
“It was hugely labour intensive, the dust and the heat were intense, and PPE back in those days was a terry towelling hat and a Rothmans cigarette.”
Inside the shed, light from the skylights and the regularly spaced poles creates the feel of a forest at dawn. It was heritage listed in 2014 not just for its historical significance but for its ingenuity, “a rare example of the use of rural vernacular building technology to meet a difficult engineering challenge on a very large scale”.
Historical image showing the construction of Murtoa No 1 Grain Store during the second world war. Photograph: Stick Shed Committee of Management
As grain handling at Murtoa modernised in the 1980s and 90s, the ageing Stick Shed became impractical for storage, and was seen as an impediment to progress.
It was saved through the efforts of passionate locals, although their campaign was “very much against community sentiment initially”, says Thomas Hamilton, the chairman of the Stick Shed management committee.
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“They certainly copped a fair bit of grief at the time, and I would say even I was in the camp that wanted it gone, but now I think most of the community has come around,” says Hamilton.
It now attracts 20,000 visitors a year.
‘Most of the community has come around’ … Stick Shed Committee of Management chair Thomas Hamilton. Photograph: Stuart Walmsley/The Guardian
Murtoa now has less than 1,000 residents, but still boasts the largest grain-handling facility in Victoria. The corrugated-iron heirloom of the Stick Shed stands alongside the town’s sprawling modern-day GrainCorp facility.
Murtoa has been a wheat town since European settlers arrived. They were attracted to the area in the 1860s by the Marma Swamp, which since has been developed into Lake Marma, a 180 megalitre water storage in the centre of town.
The railway was built in 1878 and Murtoa became the railhead, with branch lines extending through the Wimmera Mallee.
The lake remains the heart the town.
“That lake still keeps Murtoa alive,” Hamilton says. “They’ve done community surveys and it comes up again and again as the most positive thing in Murtoa and the reason people live here.”
Water from the lake was pumped into the Murtoa water tower, built in 1886, to supply houses and provide steam for the railways. The circular brick structure is 15 metres high and designed to hold 40,000 gallons. Now, it holds the town’s other main tourist attraction, the James Hill Taxidermy Collection.
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The James Hill Taxidermy Collection in Murtoa’s Water Tower Museum. Photograph: Stuart Walmsley/The Guardian
A renowned naturalist, James Hill was one of the first European settlers at Kewell, about 25km north of Murtoa.
“He farmed from dawn to dusk, as farmers do, and then did this as a hobby by candlelight,” says Daryl Tepper, the Murtoa and District Historical Society vice-president.
Hill’s family offered the collection to the community in 1981, and most of it is still presented in the original cabinets and glass domes.
Local artefacts at Murtoa’s Water Tower Museum. Photograph: Stuart Walmsley/The Guardian
“He donated money to missions in New Guinea and South America, and received skin and feathers in return, via Australia Post,” says the historical society president, Peter Adler.
The museum boasts more than 600 bird, reptile and egg specimens.
Thirty birds from the collection are depicted on a new mural that adorns the town’s grain silos, as part of the Victorian silo art trail. Artist Sam Bates completed the work in April.
One of the 30 birds is glowing in a nod to Murtoa-born psychiatrist John Cade, who discovered the effects of lithium carbonate in the treatment of mental health disorders.
The silo art is the final piece in a local tourism trifecta that is rejuvenating the town.
Murtoa’s silo mural by artist Sam Bates (AKA Smug) is inspired by the James Hill Taxidermy Collection and Murtoa-born psychiatrist John Cade. Photograph: Stuart Walmsley/The Guardian
Some locals are bemused that these old structures, the backdrop to childhood misadventures, have been given new life.
The Stick Shed made a perfect playpen for local kids, who would climb up the catwalk and jump down into the wheat. Minyip Murtoa Football Netball Club veterans recall being made to run laps in the grain by masochistic Wimmera fitness trainers.
The club president, Scott Arnold, posed for his wedding photos in the Stick Shed. He mused on the structure while watching the senior footballers notch up victory over Nhill at the Murtoa Recreation Reserve.
“It’s definitely had a bit of a chequered past with farmers,” he says. “It was probably only when the silo art trail started attracting people that everyone realised the potential of it.”
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