Tag / Viterra

by brandsa2018

Waikerie’s silo art shares the wonder of majestic River Murray

South Australian artist Garry Duncan has been living off his brush since the age of 16. He has spent the past four decades using his work to draw attention around the world to water issues, in particular the Murray Darling Basin and the environment.

Garry has many clients in the corporate sector across Australia and overseas in Asia, Europe and the Americas.

“I have artwork in places as obscure as the Bacardi Rum boardroom in Puerto Rico,” he says.

Therefore, it only seems fitting, that he was one of two artists chosen by a Melbourne based street art consultant to decorate two empty silos owned by grain handling company, Viterra, at Waikerie in the Riverland.

The silo art by Garry features native river creatures such as pelicans, ducks, frogs and rain moths. Photo by Bruce Mouatt.

The SA Government funded project was selected based on community votes and $150,000 was awarded to the project after Waikerie resident and author, Liz Frankel, applied for funding in 2017.

Nature Foundation SA also sponsored the project, which was based on the theme, Healthy River, Healthy Community. The paintings on the silos can be seen from several kilometres away and complements the beauty of the majestic River Murray.

Garry has painted semi-abstract river landscapes and characterised native river creatures such as pelicans, ducks, frogs and rain moths. He used a brush and a roller and did it all freehand, without using graphs to map out his images.

The second artist, Jimmy Dvate from Melbourne, who is well known for his street art, painted a majestic regent parrot, a yabby and the endangered Murray Hardyhead fish.

The artists’ two different styles complement each other.

Melbourne street artist, Jimmy Dvate was also involved in the project and painted this eye-catching regent parrot. Photo by David Sickerdick Photography.

To paint the almost 30m tall silos over a combined period of 16 weeks, the two artists used elevated work platforms. They used nearly 500 litres of paint to complete the works of art, which cover 360 degrees of both silos.

Garry says the silos are the perfect canvas to educate the public about the need to care for the River Murray.

“The river is not a commodity, it is an entity, and that entity is water, sky, the land, the vegetation, all the birds, fish and mammals and the people as well,” he says.

Liz Frankel says the murals, which were completed in March, are already attracting more tourists to Waikerie.

“It is unique because the entire silos are painted all the way around and to my knowledge there is no other silo art project in Australia that has used two artists, it has only been individual artists,” she says.

The Waikerie Silo Art project is unique because the silos are painted all the way around and can be viewed from the land and river.

Garry now lives in the Adelaide Hills with his wife Lou, but the Riverland has been his backdrop since the 1970s. He worked as a sign writer apprentice in Ferntree Gully in Victoria after he left school, but his talent also led to him working on public art murals.

At the age of 18, he moved to Berri in the SA Riverland and set up a sign writing business. Garry also creates sculptures using materials as diverse as glass, timber, steel and stone.

In 1997, he worked with Riverland indigenous artists to complete a mural underneath the Berri Bridge.

After it was damaged by termites in 2017, he was involved in painting a new mural under the bridge and creating a new steel installation based on the Ngurunderi Dreaming Story.

Garry’s iconic art work can also be found on Goolwa’s Hindmarsh Island Bridge, the Brindabella Aerospace Centre at Canberra Airport and on Renmark’s Twenty Third Street Distillery’s Prime 5 Brandy label.

He believes he is fortunate to make a living as an artist who can inform and educate.

Garry Duncan’s Karoonda Shuffle sculptures portray the rhythm of the grain crops grown in the Murray Mallee. Photo by Dave Hartley.

Interested in other silo murals across regional SA? Check out our story on Tumby Bay here!

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by brandsa2018

Grain handler Viterra recruiting for 1500 jobs across SA

Grain handler Viterra is on the hunt for 1500 seasonal workers to fill roles at about 80 different locations across South Australia.

Applications are now open for harvest workers to take on a range of roles from October to January at a number of Viterra’s storage and handling sites including along the far West Coast of SA, through the Yorke Peninsula, up to the Mid North, on the outskirts of Adelaide and down through the South East.

Depending on how the harvest season finishes, casual work will be available for several months from October to handle deliveries of the main commodities grown in SA – wheat, barley, canola, and pulses.

Viterra’s human resources director Ben Norman says Viterra is a major employer in regional areas with a workforce of 800 permanent staff, which is significantly boosted during harvest.

“We are a proud supporter of regional SA and are pleased to provide employment opportunities each year through our harvest recruitment,” he says.

“A range of positions are available for people seeking short-term work between October and January which is grain growers’ busiest time of the year.”

Viterra undertakes an annual harvest recruitment drive and this year was the only SA company nominated for Best Recruitment Campaign at the 2018 Australian HR Awards.

“Our company provides a great avenue for young people to gain work experience, semi-retirees looking for something different, or those between jobs seeking short-term work,” Ben says.

“No experience is necessary. We provide training for the various roles which include general grain handling, bunker operations, weighbridge operations and grain classification.”

The range of available roles include:

  • General grain handling – makes up the majority of Viterra’s harvest work. Involves using site equipment and machinery to unload grain from the trucks.
  • Bunker operations – revolve around the storage of grain on site, operating equipment to unload grain trucks, handling bunker ground covers and tarpaulins and directing traffic.
  • Weighbridge operators – weigh grain trucks when they arrive and again before the truck leaves the site, recording data for each load.
  • Grain classification – involves assessing the characteristics of grain to determine the appropriate grade.
  • Supervisory roles – for people experienced in leading a team in an operational environment.
  • Service centre (Adelaide only) – provide customer service to grain growers in a call centre environment.
  • Laboratory grain analysts (Adelaide only) – assist with general testing of Viterra commodities, report on related grain analysis and other lab requirements.

The SA grain industry contributes about $2 billion to the state’s economy every year and continues to be an important source of quality Australian grain exports to the rest of the world.

Visit I Choose SA to meet the people building business and industry in SA, and to find out how your choices make a difference to our state.

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