Rupanyup, Victoria silo murals

Submitted: Thursday, Dec 13, 2018 at 11:54
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It's been good getting to see numerous of the silo art sites around Vic, SA, and NSW of late.

On the return drive from Melbourne to Adelaide on Monday, I managed to fly the silos at Rupanyup, Victoria, a small detour off the Western Highway, and part of the Victorian silo art trail.

Leaving Melb at 0300, I got to Rupanyup just on sunrise 0600.

Ok, big embarrassing admission . . .

When going to Melb the previous Friday, and filming the Coonalpyn silo art, I had my first mishap with the Mavic Pro.
I managed to gently put it against the silo wall and slide it down to concrete about 3m below :(
Broke 2 platinum props, and damaged other 2, gimbal platform suffered some damage, but camera seemed ok.

The crash footage is on my youtube channel which is easy to find from any links to my vids.

I took this to Drone MRO in Melbourne South, and should have it back in a few days as good as new.

I'm very grateful there was no one around to see my mishap, which could have been caused by a number of issues . . . being so close to silos I may have lost some satellite connections, which could cause it to loose gps mode and go into atti mode . . . or metal rebar in the concrete silos might have interfered with compass signals . . . another possibility is the wind was coming from the west quite strongly, I was on the eastern side, there could easily have been a low pressure system that caused the drone to drift into the silo.

Lots of lessons learned, so all good.

So . . . for this latest video, I used (for the first time) a DJI Spark, loaned from my Melb based son.

To say I was nervous is pretty accurate, as the Spark is a lot smaller, can be more wind affected, has a bit of a different controller, and lots of other small differences in features to the Mavic.

Compounding this, there are trees and overhead wires at the Rupanyup site, which can create not only risk of impact, but electricity can affect comms with drone signals and cause control issues.

So I was flying pretty cautiously, and resulted in an edited 1-1/2 minutes quicky.



I did detour north to Sheep Hills then, took the photo of Sheep Hills silos with my phone.
The Spark only had the one battery, and although I landed at Rupanyup with 3/4 bars power, and I did fly Sheep Hills (quite well I thought), but . . .

The micro SD card must have been full !!!
It had many pics and vids on there from sons flights (he did say I could delete as he'd downloaded them all), and on a second short film earlier at Rup, the recording had stopped after a few seconds (unknown to me at the time), when the card must have been full.

I didn't discover this until AFTER I landed at Sheep Hills, and went to download all the vid / photos taken, there was nothing of the brilliant Sheep Hills flight :(

I'd landed with just 22% battery left, and after downloading Rup footage and formatting the card, it was down to 17%.
Although I tried for 30mins to get enough power back in for a safe follow up flight, I had to leave it and move on.

So, that site will have to wait until another trip, possibly taking in from off the Mallee Hwy, down to the Western Hwy, and get all the silo sites on that trail.

An ABC article about the artist Julia Volchkova during the mural painting . . .
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-12/russian-street-artist-paints-silo-rupanyup/8438826

Google images of some of her art Worldwide . . . (she's very good) Julia Volchkova images

This is a Google street view of the Rupanyup silos before the mural . . .

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Reply By: RMD - Thursday, Dec 13, 2018 at 13:02

Thursday, Dec 13, 2018 at 13:02
The silos painting costs a lot of money for the communities which are often struggling. Devenish silos cost $40,000. Not sure they will recoup that in visitor coffees as people simply cruise through and onto the next silo. A Brim business closed after their silo was painted.
All good for those who see it as marvellous. Just something for tourists to tour and see, you don't see many of the locals impressed, some feel conned, as travellers seem to stop in specific areas to spend dollars and unfortunately not evenly spread.
Pros and Cons to it all.
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Follow Up By: Les - PK Ranger - Thursday, Dec 13, 2018 at 16:39

Thursday, Dec 13, 2018 at 16:39
That’s very possible RMD.
Some of the sites I have seen almost have no town, or small garages etc are closed when passing through.

Towns still seem to be keen on getting this done.
Maybe it’ll take some more time to build numbers coming and the % of people stopping / spending will increase accordingly.
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Follow Up By: Allan B (Sunshine Coast) - Thursday, Dec 13, 2018 at 19:48

Thursday, Dec 13, 2018 at 19:48
.
Maybe the communities were more motivated to enhance their environment than for pecuniary reasons. It would be nice if the local shops enjoyed some extra income but that may not have been the primary incentive.

Nevertheless, I would advocate travellers spend some in the small towns especially if they have provided public facilities such as parks and toilets...... or even art-rendered silos.


Cheers
Allan

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Follow Up By: Member - ACD 1 - Thursday, Dec 13, 2018 at 19:51

Thursday, Dec 13, 2018 at 19:51
What was they said in 'Field of Dreams'...

..."Build it and they will come!"

Cheers

Anthony
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Follow Up By: Les - PK Ranger - Thursday, Dec 13, 2018 at 21:05

Thursday, Dec 13, 2018 at 21:05
The knowledge of these silos is getting out there now Anthony, it's got to be remembered some of these were only completed in the past 12 - 18 months.

Hopefully these silo art trails and google maps silos Aust wide will help people become more aware of them and alter trip routes slightly to take in the great efforts of artists, and community spirit.
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Follow Up By: Member - john y - Thursday, Dec 13, 2018 at 21:57

Thursday, Dec 13, 2018 at 21:57
as one who has been able to see many of these art works I am concerned as more and more of these sites appear ,that overall interest may wane .At most of these sites there are collection points for visitors to make a contribution for the upkeep of the artworks . If the visitor patronage wanes then one would expect the contributions would also decrease and with the financial situation of the small communities these sites could fall into disrepair.
I hope that people that visit these sites are aware of this and offer some assistance if possible as we cannot expect the local businesses to bear the cost especially as the financial benefit to them is very problematic at best
It would be a shame to see these great works degenerate into eyesores.





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Follow Up By: mike39 - Friday, Dec 14, 2018 at 08:35

Friday, Dec 14, 2018 at 08:35
John y
I believe the whole Art Trail project is fully funded by Grain Corp who I am sure will oversee any ongoing maintenance.
Its good to see a Corporation making such a substantial and visible contribution to remote regional towns.
mike
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Follow Up By: Member - Mark (Tamworth NSW) - Friday, Dec 14, 2018 at 13:53

Friday, Dec 14, 2018 at 13:53
Mike
Not all of these silos are owned by Grain Corp, reasonably certain the Rupanyup silos are privately owned and quite a few of the others have been mothballed by them for some years.
Mark
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Follow Up By: Les - PK Ranger - Friday, Dec 14, 2018 at 14:20

Friday, Dec 14, 2018 at 14:20
Seems like decent paint being used.
The video clip of the pass painting Rupanyup showed Taubmans Endure as the prime base colour.

Let's just enjoy them while they last (10, 15, 20 years ?) and don't sweat the little stuff.
Communities will surely be better off with any increase in visitors passing through.
The Vic silo trail would need a good couple of days to see at least = a stay somewhere along there when completing it.
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Follow Up By: Gerard S - Friday, Dec 14, 2018 at 18:58

Friday, Dec 14, 2018 at 18:58
They were a novelty and well worth doing a Silo Trail. We bought a couple of pies at a small town bakery, maybe a 6 pack and topped up the diesel tank, spread over 6 towns. So they don't automatically generate revenue. With the proliferation of decorated silos I think they will become passe'.
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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Friday, Dec 14, 2018 at 20:24

Friday, Dec 14, 2018 at 20:24
Hi Mike

I can not comment for the sites in Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, but what I can tell you that the Silo Art Sites that I have been to and know about at Thallon in Queensland, Kimba, Wirrabara, Tumby Bay, and the almost completed Waikerie sites here in South Australia have all been funded by the local councils support and public funding.

The communities have held fund raising events and received public donations and the towns are full of praise and the benefits from passing tourists that stop to see the sites, and the money that they spend in the area when they are passing through.

Do a google and read the positive reports regarding the above towns.



Cheers



Stephen



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Follow Up By: mike39 - Sunday, Dec 16, 2018 at 08:55

Sunday, Dec 16, 2018 at 08:55
Hi Steven.

Bit more info. from the website, I think it is something that helps put our country regions well on to the international tourist map.

www.graincorp.com.au/siloart

mike

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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Sunday, Dec 16, 2018 at 09:51

Sunday, Dec 16, 2018 at 09:51
Hi Mike

Thanks for that great link, it is very interesting.



Cheers


Stephen
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