Silo Art of Owen - South Australia

Wheat Bags to Sand bags

‘Wheat bags to Sand bags’ depicts a snapshot in time in rural Australia at the outbreak of the First World War. 

This was a small but pivotal part of our nation’s history. Australia had only recently achieved nationhood in 1901 when its young men and women were called to service in 1914. At great personal and community cost, farmers and farm labourers from this district exchanged their wheat fields for the battlefields of Europe. This artwork is a tribute to them.

The scene is harvest around Owen in 1914 and men loading wheat bags onto the dray being pulled by a team of draught horses.

The next silo is the following year and we're in Gallipoli. There is one chap who should be recognisable as the same man who was loading wheat bags and a year later is throwing sand into a sand bag in the trenches at Gallipoli.

Fittingly completed near ANZAC Day 2021, Owen Community Centre Silo Art Committee member Nick Smyth said the art titled 'Wheat bags to sand bags' was a nod to the region's agricultural and military history, as well as a tribute to the servicemen and women from the region who made the ultimate sacrifice in World War 1.

To read more about this great work of art, head over to the Silo Art of Owen website .