Murtoa Stick Shed
13 Oct 2011Large numbers of visitors flocked to view Murtoa Stick Shed on Sunday 2 October.
Work is underway to enable more frequent Open Days but unfortunately the Stick Shed is NOT open to the general public for now.
Note: Please do not enter the GrainCorp site. This is a working site and is currently entering its busy season with harvests in full swing.
With a huge restoration project all but complete, the Shed drew a huge crowd during the Murtoa Big Weekend. More than 1250 people visited the Stick Shed on 2 October with visitors coming from across Victoria and even interstate to view this unusual structure.
Dubbed the 'Cathedral of the Wimmera', the 1941 Murtoa Stick Shed spans the length of five Olympic swimming pools. It is the last remaining of the sheds constructed in Australia as a solution for grain storage during the World War II wheat glut.
The Stick Shed, which could store up to 95,000 tonnes of wheat, gets its name from the hundreds of unmilled poles – some up to 20 metres high - which stand in rows propping up the immense roof.
The Heritage Council and Heritage Victoria together committed more than $1.5 m for the Stick Shed, one of the State’s most important and most threatened heritage places.
Works have included repairs to posts, rafters and purlins. New concrete bases have been poured for poles which had been affected by vermin or damp and the poles repositioned to their correct height. Bow trusses have been added to strengthen some poles and some rafters replaced with laminated veneered lumber.
Read more about the Stick Shed (PDF 326 Kb) or (Word 26 Kb)