Continuing to explore rural South Australia
My next stop on my quest to see as much Silo Art as I can is at the town of Owen, about an hour's drive north of Adelaide. The town calls itself "The heart of the plains" the area around Owen is flat and now is mainly used for grain farming.
Planning for Owen's silo art started in 2018, with the eventual theme being "Wheat bags to sand bags". It shows country life at the beginning of World War I and then the trenches at Gallipoli in 1915.
This silo art is quite large, with six silos being painted, two artists were involved Robert Hannaford and Cam Scale. 'Wheat bags' is a scene of wheat being bagged up and then loaded onto a dray to be transported to Adelaide.
The next three silos have the sand bags image, of Australian soldiers on the beach at Gallipoli filling bags of sand to create trenches. One of the men from the 'Wheat bags' image is in the 'Sand bags' one. The silos are opposite the town war memorial so there's a nice link between the two.
The town's main commercial area is near the silos as that's where the railway line was. The town has a pub, now called the Owen Arms Hotel, where you can get lunch and snacks, as well as an alcoholic drink!
A local history board nearby had a photo of the pub before the brick extension at the front was added. It was an attractive building and at the time it was called the Wooroona Hotel.
Right opposite the silos is the Institute building, it says 1932 on it but that's when it was probably added to as other information said that it was built in the early 1900's along with the town's other major buildings.
The bank building is now a private home, but it's interesting to see how in the past a small town's bank would also have had accomodation for its manager attached.
Owen seems to have a strong sense of community shown through not only its Silo Art project but also with its street landscaping.
It's good to see some local businesses have taken over what had been abandoned shops, I saw a photo of this Drapery store from 2015 and it was just a closed up building.
The town also has a gift shop, a post office and a coffee shop where I had lunch. What was really impressive was that the town had quite a few amenities for the local population, there was the usual football oval, but it also has a community pool, a bowling green and a golf course, a lot I thought for a town with a population of around 500 people.
In the mid 1990s the area where the town's stormwater lay was regenerated as a wetland. There's a 4km walking path around the wetlands or it's possible to just walk a short distance and back again.
Owen wetlands
Whilst the Silo Art is the main attraction that would interest visitors, Owen does provide something more. There are some options for food, there's a walking trail from the silos or the loop around the wetlands. And there's also a couple of shopping options to help support the local businesses.
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