Walls and Silos

Lindy and I were both keen to visit Benalla to see some of the artworks from their Wall to Wall festival which has been running for four years so Benalla was the very first stop of our trip.

First we had lunch in the park, and I discovered that the old rocket that I used to stop at with my family and play on with my brother was still there, although it has been refurbished! Matthew in particular loved it and we flew to all sorts of amazing planets, including one with poisonous bananas which we couldn’t look at or step on – so he found some special glasses and special boots in a couple of secret compartments in the rocket.

Izzy went off and found our first geocache of the trip (110^th all up) in the park. Then it was on to the artwork.

We found a number of works on the side of a gallery cafe, including one by our good friend Julian Clavijo. Izzy and Lindy went straight out to look at them, but Matthew and I didn’t make it past the chess board in the gallery. Matthew is keen to learn chess and is doing really well.

I finally managed to get outside to see the murals and they were stunning.

We moved on to Goorambat and the first painted silo. This one featured the Barking Owl which we learnt is endangered and there is believed to only be 50 breeding pairs left in the wild.

Also at Goorambat, the Uniting Church had a mural painted on the front wall which was beautiful.

We had a good look and then moved on to Devenish and the second silo. This one was painted with a World War I nurse and a current day medic as a tribute to those from the area that had served in the armed forces.

Then it was a long drive up the Hume, stopping to camp in the Jugiong Showgrounds. Quite a nice spot for an overnight camp on the banks of the Murrumbidgee, although the trucks on the Hume were always audible.