Murtoa Stick Shed

Why is it Significant?

The Murtoa Grain Store No.1, known as the ‘Stick Shed’, is the earliest and only remaining of three such colossal grain storage sheds built in Victoria during the early 1940s for the temporary storage of wheat during the Second World War when grain exporting was impossible.  Constructed during a period of materials shortage, the corrugated iron roof is supported on 560 un-milled mountain ash poles, or ‘sticks’ that give it its colloquial name.  Located next to the Melbourne-Adelaide rail line, it is a dramatic 260m long, 60m wide and 19m high.  The angle of roof is the same as the angle of repose of wheat and gives the building a long, low profile in the flat plains of the Wimmera.  Designed to hold 100,000 tons, it last used stored grain in 1990.

Why is it at Risk?

There has been a 20 year fight for this quintessentially Australian and vernacular response to the wartime exigencies of surplus wheat and shortage of modern building materials.  The redundant shed continues to be threatened by calls for its demolition.  The National Trust strongly supports the preservation of the Murtoa Stick Shed, in the face of calls for its demolition by GrainCorp, the Victorian Farmers Federation, and member for Lohan, Hugh Delahunty.  A small but vocal number of locals have consistently spoken out against it, and an equally vocal number of locals support its preservation.

An Interim Preservation Order was served by Historic Buildings Council (HBC) in December 1989.  On Australia Day 1990 the Grain Elevator Board formally advised that they opposed registration but nonetheless by December 1990 the shed had been added to the Victorian Heritage Register.  In August 1991 the Grain Elevator Board applied for a demolition permit on the grounds that maintenance was beyond their resources and that estimates for cost of repair was $1M.  The Trust vigorously opposed demolition at an HBC permits committee hearing in September 1991.  The permit was refused on the grounds of the building’s significance.  In 1995 the shed fell back into the hands of the Department of Treasury & Finance.  However, VicGrain (now GrainCorp) continue to operate an elevator that is integral to the west end of the shed. 

High winds in January 1997 dislodged around 50 sheets of iron from the roof.  Wire mesh now covers the entire roof to prevent sheets from flying off. In 1997 the government appointed an Advisory Committee to report on the shed.  It concluded that the historic and architectural significance of the shed was such that it should be preserved and made accessible to the community, but preservation should not compromise the efficient operation of the VicGrain terminal, and that funds expended to secure its preservations should be minimised.

What needs to be done?

The shed is constructed with 56 rows of poles with ten poles per row.  The largest of the 560 poles at the ridge are 18m high.  The construction of unmilled poles and purlins; milled rafters, battens and braces and metal straps that attach the poles to the purlins has suffered form a lack of maintenance over the last 15 years. 

The concrete floor, (which ironically probably saved the building from destruction in the 1980s when the neighbouring shed was demolished because of a badly deteriorated iron floor) has contributed to the rotting out of the base of the poles. Some poles have had new bases added and in the past some poles were replaced with steel poles. However , many are rotted out and high winds can lift the poles.The cost of a replacement timber pole is up to $27,000. 

There are tie rods to most poles but many have come loose or free.  The roof of corrugated iron sheets, with painted oxidised finish, is in variable condition, with some gaping holes left by missing sheets.  The Department of Treasury & Finance has recently refastened a large number of roof sheets because of the threat of high winds lifting sheets.

The Victorian Government has, via the Heritage Council of Victoria, committed $1.2 million to the repair of the shed.  The contribution of such a sum by the Victorian Government is virtually unprecedented and an indication of the significance of the place. 

The $1.2M funding was sufficient to repair all poles. However, following changes in working methods required as a result of Worksafe requirements, the funding is only sufficient to repair 50% of the shed.  A post-tensioning system has been designed for about 100 poles that will allow safe working in wind speeds up to 60km/h, and these are the only new structural element in the building.  An engineer was engaged by the Heritage Council to show the shed was not about to collapse, however an arbitrary windspeed of 20km/h has been set for site access closure to the repair works. 

Additional funds are required to complete the repair work to the shed.  The shed has been nominated to the National Heritage List by Heritage Council of Vitoria and the Trust supports this nomination. 

No re-use has yet been secured for the shed.  Re-use would help secure its future maintenance and preservation, however buildings as significant as this should be preserved for as long as it takes to find a suitable re-use, and its survival should not be dependent on re-use now.