Against the grain
IN AUGUST OF 2016, FREMANTLE ARTIST Amok Island was given 31 days and the biggest canvas in the small Western Australia Wheatbelt town of Ravensthorpe to create a traffic stopper. As a result, three CBH Group grain silos bear a mural of the town’s famous banksia wildflowers. While Ravensthorpe has flirted with mining over the years – BHP Billiton spent a turbulent year in pursuit of nickel in the late 2000s – the local wildflowers are a constant affair, blooming every year from August to November. Now, Ravie’s banksias are in bloom all year round. And they’re 25 metres high.
Silo art trails have popped up around Australia as the hot new way to see the countryside and get a culture fix at the same time. The Australian road trip is a dream we’ve exalted to almost
