Silo art in South Australia: Where are the best murals?
Cam Scale’s 60 metre Kimba silo art mural across the Viterra grain silos is an unexpected travel highlight on the Eyre Peninsula. It’s a great example of silo art in South Australia. More can be found in Coonalpyn, Tumby Bay, Waikerie, Cowell and Farrell Flat.
Kimba is a functional stopover town on the Eyre Highway between South Australian capital Adelaide and the Nullarbor Plain proper. With all due respect, it is not where you expect to see great art. The top attractions in Kimba, after all, are the eight metre high Big Galah and a sign falsely claiming to be halfway across Australia.
That’s why what you see on the way across the Eyre Peninsula from Adelaide is so astonishing. There are a series of enormous grain silos by the side of the road. They’re also next to a railway line that heads down to the ships at Port Lincoln, a town better known for its shark diving tours.
This could be any number of small regional Australian service towns. They’re dry, mildly depressing and exist largely to give farmers somewhere to shop and disperse of grain.
For most, Kimba is a toilet and fuel stop between a steelworks tour in Whyalla and swimming with sealions at Baird Bay.
Silo art in South Australia: Cam Scale and Viterra silos
In September 2017, Kimba turned this grain-based functionalism into something delightfully artistic. That’s when Melbourne artist Cam Scale finished his monumental artwork on the Viterra silos.
Scale’s Kimba silo art mural spreads across five and a half silos. It’s more than 60 metres wide, and 25 metres high. In the background is a purple sunset, and in the foreground stands a young girl in a wheat field. Get the right angle, and the wheat fields of the mural blend in with the real life ones behind it. There’s a designated viewing area with plenty of roadside parking next to the Kimba silo art. That’s handy for anyone stopping off before hitting Ceduna, the Nullarbor Links and the Nullarbor Plain.
The artist took 26 days to complete the Kimba silo art mural, and used 200 litres of paint in the process. And, had the concept of silo art not spread across Australia, it would be unique.
Silo art in Coonalpyn, Cowell, Tumby Bay & more
In the last decade, silo art has boomed as a concept in Australia. Mega murals on the side of grain silos can be found in Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. There’s even an Australian silo art trail, should any visitors get mildly obsessed with it.
Aside from the Viterra silos in Kimba, there are currently seven other silo art sites in South Australia. Others can be found in Coonalpyn near the Coorong National Park, or Cowell and Tumby Bay on the Lincoln Highway on the drive from Whyalla to Port Lincoln. Try, too, Farrell Flat on the cusp of the Clare Valley wine region. There’s also one in Waikerie on the Murray River. God help you, however, if you’re ever far enough off a decent tourist route to visit those in Karoonda and Wirrabarra.
At Quorn near the Flinders Ranges, there’s a variation on the theme. There’s no mural, but there is a light show projected onto the silos.
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