Victoria

Victoria's Silo Art Trail: how to explore Australia’s biggest outdoor art gallery

Painted silos featuring a girl on a swing at Sea Lake in Victoria

Nicola Dowse

Posted June 05, 2023

Spanning 700-kilometers and featuring works by Rone, Adnate, and other iconic artists, discover Australia’s largest outdoor art gallery on this unique Victorian road trip.

Australia is home to plenty of big things: big prawns, big merinos, and big bananas. The location of each big thing often plays homage to the local industries or landscape. Given that, it makes perfect sense that Victoria, often referred to as the cultural heart of Australia, is home to the country’s biggest outdoor art gallery.

The Silo Art Trail has been turning heads on dusty regional roads since 2016 with its 700km-long collection of massive street artworks celebrating the people and culture of Victoria’s northwest.

Originally a region known for its agriculture industry, the project has injected new life into rural towns and encouraged tourism to the areas, along with providing economic benefits for the local communities and gifting Victoria one of the most unique road trip routes in the country. 

Follow our guide on the best way to visit Victoria's Silo Art Trail.

Brim is home to Victoria's first silo artwork, created by Guido van Helten and Juddy Roller.
For many road trippers, the silo at Rupanyup is the first they'll encounter along the trail.

How to visit the Silo Art Trail

There’s no hard and fast way to explore the Silo Art Trail, and the route you take can be altered depending on how long you have and what works you want to see. The one thing you will need, however, is a vehicle. 

If travelling from Melbourne, Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong or Victoria's east, it’s advised tourists begin with the Rupanyup silo before heading north towards Sheep Hills, Brim and Rosebery. Once you hit Hopetoun, you’ve the choice to continue north to Patchewollock, west to Albacutya, or east to Lascelles and Sea Lake. 

From Melbourne, it's roughly a 3.5 hour drive to Rupanyup, where you can elect to stop at the RACV Goldfields Resort in Creswick on your way home. 

Alternatively, you can tackle the trail by flying into Mildura, hiring a vehicle, and approaching the trail from the north, beginning with Patchewollock. Those driving from Adelaide can start the trail from Kaniva.

 

Silo art trail map

If you don't have time to see all the silos, driving from Rupanyup through to Lascelles lets you encounter five of the main works. 

Highlights of the Silo Art Trail

With more than 15 works (and growing), it’s hard to single out just a few silos. There are, however, a few key works you can't miss: 

Rupanyup silo art by Julia Volchkova 

The Rupanyup silo is the first many tourists will encounter. The silo was created by Russian muralist Julia Volchkova, who was inspired by the town’s youth, and their enthusiasm for team sports in particular.

Like many Victorian towns, Rupanyup has its own football and netball clubs, with Volchkova choosing to portray local sports club members Ebony Baker and Jordan Weidemann on the silos. 

Brim silo art by Guido van Helten

This huge mural by photorealistic street artist Guido van Helten and Juddy Roller was the artwork that started the entire Silo Art Trail. The work was completed in 2016, and soon after brought international attention to the small town of Brim (which has a population of just 181 people).

The mural depicts four fictional farmers intended to represent the resilient farming community of the Wimmera region, and was also nominated for the 2016 Sulman Art Prize (Australia’s leading genre, subject or mural painting prize delivered alongside the Archibald Prize by the Art Gallery of NSW). 

Lascelles silo art by Rone 

Victorian street artist Rone, known for his large-scale installations in abandoned and decaying buildings, chose to depict two Lascelles locals in his silo artwork. Farming couple Geoff and Merrilyn Horman who have lived in the area for four generations are the subjects of the huge mural, which has been created on silos that date back to 1939.

Their portraits have been created in Rone’s signature washed-out style of realism painting that makes the works appear as if they’ve organically risen out of the silo’s concrete walls.

 

In Rosebery, Kaff-eine pays tribute to the past, present and future of the region's farming industry.
Adnate's silo artwork in Sheep Hills celebrates the local Aboriginal communities and culture.

Rupanyup silo art by Julia Volchkova 

The Rupanyup silo is the first many tourists will encounter. The silo was created by Russian muralist Julia Volchkova, who was inspired by the town’s youth, and their enthusiasm for team sports in particular.

Like many Victorian towns, Rupanyup has its own football and netball clubs, with Volchkova choosing to portray local sports club members Ebony Baker and Jordan Weidemann on the silos.  

Rosebery silo art by Kaff-eine  

This Melbourne street artist actually assisted with Rone’s silo work in Lascelles, and used this time to explore and learn more about the land and people of the Wimmera-Mallee region.

She then took this knowledge and created her own silo artwork in Rosebery, painting a mural intended to portray the region’s past, present and future. On the left, Kaff-eine painted a female farmer, a nod to the many women who work the land in the region and their tenacity against nature. On the right, she painted a tender moment between a man and his horse, dressing the man in items common to the area such as an Akubra and oilskin vest. 

Sheep Hills silo art by Adnate 

Adnate is no stranger to painting huge murals, having created the southern hemisphere’s tallest street artwork on a Collingwood public housing tower in 2018. His silo artwork in Sheep Hills is the result of his friendship with the Barengi Gadjin Land Council, and the four weeks he spent getting to know this community.

The mural portrays Wergaia Elder, Uncle Ron Marks, and Wotjobaluk Elder, Aunty Regina Hood alongside two children, Savannah Marks and Curtly McDonald, in a work that speaks to the local dreaming as well as the passing of ancestral knowledge between generations.

  

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