…and the misunderstood spit-roast.
Words by Paul Hollingworth.
I had originally planned to host our run to the North East Victoria Silo Art Trail on Cup Day 2021, but my sister decided that was the day she was going to married. To be fair, she had postponed her wedding by a year so her relatives in Victoria could attend – her wedding was in Brisbane – but as it turned out, delta put the kybosh on that too. So instead of the silo art, I watched my mum bawling watching Karen and Michelle’s Skype wedding!
Anyway, let’s get back to the silo art! The day was moved from Cup Day to Boxing Day. The Boxing Day runs are nice little events that let us escape the Christmas/New Year madness for just a little while.
The day started off at the Bunnings Carpark in Craigieburn, and to my disappointment, there was no sausage sizzle. Not to worry though, Alan reminded me that Bunnings has a cafe, so breakfast and coffee was had amongst the building supplies while we waited for more arrivals. Once everyone had their fill, checked-in, chatted, and was briefed, we headed off in convoy for the almost two-hour drive to Benalla. I have not been to Benalla before, it seems nice enough for a pee break at least. We stretched our legs, and had coffee and biscuits – thanks to Gordon. We were also able to meet the three dogs who came on the trip with us, but more on these shortly.
Our first silo art wasn’t silo art at all, but the Winton Wetlands CFA Water Tank. Now on the VisitVictoria webpage this looks like an amazing addition to a dramatic landscape. In reality it looks like “wft are we doing here?”. It didn’t really matter though, it gave us another opportunity to chat and stretch our legs, and to hear Gordon tell us a story about the wetlands and Premier Hamer.
This brings me back to the dogs. Gordon had bought along some sausages and hamburger patties for lunch, but instead suggested we “spit-roast the dogs”! Gordon’s innocent soul did not realise the innuendo in his comment, but it gave the rest of us endless delight.
With the dogs safely away from Gordon, we head off to what was to be the first actual silos of the day at Goorambat. Another town I had not been to before, but a plaque proudly commemorates a visit by the Queen in 1954. Here we also had lunch in Victory Park. Again, we all thank Gordon for the food and drinks (and for not harassing the dogs). It was really very nice eating with such a great variety of personalities.
All of our next three stops were essentially on the same (very long) road, and took us through many lovely, dying, little towns. The first was Devenish, then St James, then Tungamah. St James, in my opinion, was where the better art was located for the day. It is the birthplace of the man behind Coles and the location of their first store. It has a beautiful Art Deco pub, complete with bogans and a friendly, little black dog. The town even had an outdoor historic machinery museum!
The art trail complete, and time getting on, we decided to give Shepparton a miss – the car museum there is closed for renovations – and make the easy drive back to Melbourne.
I really enjoyed this trip and thank all who attended and contributed to its success.
If you would like to run your own day trip or weekend away, please contact me directly, or our events team at events@motafrenz.org.au
