A rusted domed concrete grain silo with a raised conveyor gantry and headhouse tower at Mount Russell, set against a broad cloud-filled sky.

01 Mount Russell Grain SiloMount Russell2023

ISO 641/320 secf/8.0180mm

Series · 6 prints

Mount Russell Grain Silo

Photographed 2023
Frames 6
Camera NIKON D850
Location Northern Tablelands, NSW
Status Disused
Years 1934 to 2007
Heritage No listing identified (HMS NSW 2026-06-09)
Specs Type S041 concrete silos, 1934 · Type A285 scalloped bulk store, 1955 · GrainCorp closed 2007
01 ABOUT THIS SERIES

Series story

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

Mount Russell sits among dry grass and eucalypt on the North West Slopes of New South Wales, about 25 kilometres north-west of Inverell. The original concrete cell silos were built in 1934 as part of the NSW Government's bulk-wheat programme for the northern railway network. In 1955 a large scalloped bulk store, locally known as an opera house type, was added alongside. The Inverell branch line closed in 1987, and GrainCorp shut the facility in 2007.

Mount Russell was one node in a system designed overseas. From 1916, New South Wales moved to handle its wheat in bulk rather than in bags, to a blueprint drawn up by the Canadian firm John S Metcalfe and Company. Instead of sewing wheat into hessian sacks and stacking them by hand, the grain was poured loose into concrete towers and moved by machine. Mount Russell was named among the northern centres built under the 1933 to 1934 programme.

Its standing in the network showed in 1936. After a poor north-west harvest, nearly every silo in the northern system shut down, and only two kept running: Inverell, and Mount Russell. The government's Grain Elevators Board operated the network. It became the Grain Handling Authority in 1989, and in 1992 the wheat growers bought the business from the state, trading since as GrainCorp.

Mount Russell was a rail receival site, and the Inverell branch line through it closed in 1987. The silo was out of use by 2007. It holds no heritage protection of any kind: nothing on the State Heritage Register, nothing on the Inverell council's local schedule, not a single listed silo anywhere in the shire. A whole class of concrete buildings went up to move the country's wheat, and the register has no place for them.

The Sun (Sydney), 1936, via Trove, NSW Silos (Hal Pratt) and Mount Russell, New South Wales (Wikipedia)

02 TIMELINE

Chronology

1934
1936
1954
1955
1987
1992
2007
03 PRINTS

Prints in this series

Hand-signed and numbered, printed from the original RAW file. Open editions in the two smallest sizes; limited editions of 100, 50 and 25 in the three larger, never reissued once they sell through.

A metal-clad tower and raised covered conveyor running to a rust-streaked pitched roof at Mount Russell, photographed under an overcast sky.
Tower and Conveyor
A rusting domed roof and elevator tower at Mount Russell, viewed from a sandy two-track road lined with tall flowering weeds under a cloudy sky.
Grain Store Driveway
A tall corrugated metal grain elevator tower connected by a raised conveyor gallery and steel stairway to a concrete grain shed at Mount Russell, with smaller silos visible across a grassed paddock under a partly clouded sky.
Grain Elevator Tower
A rusted domed concrete grain silo with a raised conveyor gantry and headhouse tower at Mount Russell, set against a broad cloud-filled sky.
Domed Grain Store
View looking up at the steel-framed dome interior of the grain silo at Mount Russell, with concentric skylight openings and a gravel-covered floor below.
Dome Interior
Weathered concrete grain silo cells rising behind a row of trees and low scrub at Mount Russell, with a corrugated metal roof and tall headhouse visible above the canopy.
Concrete Grain Silos
03 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

All silos in the northern system, except those at Mount Russell and Inverell, have closed down

The Sun, Sydney, 20 December 1936, via Trove

04 ABOUT THE PRINTS

How they’re made

Made to order by Brett in Sydney, from the original RAW file. Each print is hand-signed and numbered before it ships.

Paper

Ilford Galerie cotton rag, 310 gsm. Acrylic on metallic gloss, 260 gsm.

Editions

Open in XS and S. Limited in M (100), L (50), XL (25). From $100.

Print tiers →

Lead time

Unframed: 5 to 10 business days. Framed and acrylic: 10 to 20.

08 REFERENCES

Sources and further reading

  1. 01
    NSW silo construction programme names Mount Russell, 1933Trove, National Library of Australia · 1933nla.gov.au/nla.news-article134597873
    T1
  2. 02
    Mount Russell holds 119,846 bags of wheat in store, 1930Trove, National Library of Australia · 1930nla.gov.au/nla.news-article185917073
    T1
  3. 03
    Mount Russell railway station destroyed by fire, 1934Trove, National Library of Australia · 1934nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230515989
    T1
  4. 04
    Only Mount Russell and Inverell silos still operating, 1936The Sun (Sydney) via Trove, National Library of Australia · 1936nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230901282
    T1
  5. 05
    Additional storage provided at Mount Russell, 1954Trove, National Library of Australia · 1954nla.gov.au/nla.news-article135060177
    T1
  6. 06
    Mount Russell silo record, types S041 (1934) and A285 (1955)NSW Silos (Hal Pratt)nswsilos.com/silo-photos-m
    T3
  7. 07
    History of bulk grain handling in New South WalesNSW Silos (Hal Pratt)nswsilos.com.au/history/
    T2
  8. 08
    Mount Russell, New South WalesWikipediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Russell,_New_South_Wales
    T3
  9. 09
    Glebe Island Silos, State Heritage Inventory s170 form (Metcalfe 1916 bulk-handling scheme)Port Authority of New South Wales · 2004portauthoritynsw.com.au/sites/default/files/media/migrated/files/s170_shi-form_glebe-island-silos.pdf
    T1
  10. 10
    GrainCorp company historyGrainCorpgraincorp.com.au/about-us/
    T2
  11. 11
    NSW State Heritage Inventory search, no Mount Russell listingHeritage NSW · 2026hms.heritage.nsw.gov.au/App/Item/HeritageSearch
    T1
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