Stick Shed – a curious and intriguing name for a building but this is in no way any ordinary building – it’s immense. Even more remarkable, it’s the smallest of two giant sheds built in the Wheatbelt township of Murtoa* in Victoria.

The Murtoa Grain Store, by its official name, was built in 1941 in just 4-months, a remarkable achievement when you realise the enormous scale of the building. It was constructed to store wheat following a bumper year’s harvest when overseas exports were being severely restricted during Word War II. But, surprisingly at first, there was opposition from the businesses that supplied grain sacks. The reason being they were set to lose out and in a very, very big way.

Hand Built

Measuring 270-metres long by 60-metres wide, the floor of Stick Shed covers an area of 1.6-hectares (4-acres) and every square metre of it was laid in hand-mixed concrete. The enormous corrugated steel roof is supported by 560 unmilled poles, referred to as ‘sticks’, reaching upwards as high as 19-metres along the central ridge line and braced by twisted steel cables.

Calculating the angle the designers needed for the roof, while making best economical use of materials, relied on what is known as ‘the natural angle of repose’. In this case, when piled, wheat creates a natural pyramid shape with a consistent slope angle of 23-degrees and, naturally, that is exactly the angle the designers used for the Stick Shed roof.

Sour Grapes

As mentioned, the grain sack suppliers objected to the construction of a loose grain store arguing, with some credible reasoning that the grain would be exposed to vermin, moisture and potentially rot. However, loss of sales was the real reason and understandably. The Stick Shed was designed to hold the equivalent of 1-million 80KG sacks (3-bushels/sack) – clearly a considerable financial setback for them. The advantage, though, of loose storage meant no manual handling of grain sacks and a considerable saving in labour costs.

Big and Bigger

On completion of construction the first load of grain was delivered on the 22nd of January 1942 and by June it was filled with 3,381,600 bushels (approx 90,000 tonnes) of wheat. A second larger shed was constructed beside the Stick Shed capable of holding an additional 7,500,000 bushels and nearby a further 10,000,000 bushel shed was built. Today, however, just the Stick Shed remains, now preserved for the future and on the National Heritage List.

A Must See

The Stick Shed is one of those buildings that you cannot really anticipate the scale of. It is way, way bigger than you may imagine and guaranteed a ‘Wow!’ as soon as your eyes adjust to the light level.

We’d absolutely recommend a visit for all the family. There is an excellent introductory session by knowledgeable guides before you are free to wander and ample parking available.

The Stick Shed was featured as the location for Australia’s CH10 Master Chef programme on July 6th 2023.

For more information check the www.thestickshed.com.au website.

N.B. If you are a keen photographer beware it is quite dark inside and a tripod is very much recommend. However, even on a dull day, smartphone cameras can give excellent results.

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* Murtoa is the indigenous name meaning ‘home of the lizard’.