The Worlds Biggest Shed
Where is the worlds biggest shed?
Deep in the heart of the Australian state of Victoria, on the Wimmera Plains between Horsham and St Arnaud in Murtoa lies The Murtoa Stick Shed. At 870 feet long, 198 feet wide and 62 feet 10 inches high at the ridge, it takes the title of world’s biggest shed, covering an area of 170,000 square feet and with a capacity 95,000 tonnes. Or it did once.
This shed is the sole survivor of a cluster of similar constructions and is protected by Heritage Victoria (since 1992) as entry number 101 as well as being listed on the Australian Register of Heritage Places.
It is the world’s biggest rustic construction, the only one remaining, despite the fact that several more were created around Southern and Western Australia during WWII as temporary storage for wheat that could not be shipped.
When was it built.
The Stick Shed is formally known as Murtoa No. 1 Grain Store. Between September 1941 and January 1942, it was constructed over a four-month period and was filled with grain within six months after completion.
A new railway siding was built to service the shed.
Why was the Murtoa Stick Shed built
In the 1930s, Australia had a wheat glut. With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Asia was temporarily designated as the new target market, as trading with Europe became precarious. Because of the War’s restrictions on trade, food surplus was swiftly stockpiled.
Therefore, the Australian Wheat Board acquired all the country’s wheat and constructed a countrywide network of 22 emergency wheat storage under the National Security Act 1939. Originally called ‘bulkheads,’ they were known as Emergency Wheat Storage Sheds.
Finally, around the 1941-2 Victorian harvest made it necessary to find a solution to this problem. So the Victorian Grain Elevators Board opted to construct the first Victorian Shed at the vital railway location of Murtoa.
When was The Worlds Biggest Shed Last Used?
The No.1 Grain Store, Australia’s final Stick Shed, became surplus to the wheat industry in 1989 and was emptied for the last time in 1990, when its final 30,000 tonnes of grain were carried away.
Visiting the Murtoa Stick Shed today
To see the ‘sticks’ is a breath-taking experience. The term is an excellent example of Australian understatement – the ‘sticks’ are really cut lateral branches from 560 mountain ash trees, and the shed spans the length of five Olympic swimming pools!
It is appropriately dubbed the ‘Cathedral of the Wimmera.’
Thanks to local efforts the Stick Shed remains one of the most spectacular sites to see in Victoria and a must-see for anybody visiting the Wimmera region. The site includes a movie that provides an excellent overview of how and why it was constructed.
Hours:
| Monday | 10am–2pm |
| Tuesday | 10am–2pm |
| Wednesday | 10am–2pm |
| Thursday | 10am–2pm |
| Friday | 10am–2pm |
| Saturday | 10am–2pm |
| Sunday | 10am–2pm |
Their facebook page can be found here.
The Fake Worlds Biggest Shed.
A google search may throw up this reference. The Boeing Everett Factory in Everett, Washington, is the world’s biggest structure. It is an aeroplane assembly facility covering an area of roughly 98 acres (399,483 square metres). That’s around the size of a tiny 18-hole golf course, where the majority of people go by golf cart.
Of course that’s not really a shed, it’s a factory but it seems to slip into the Google algorithm for the worlds biggest shed.