Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail What an Amazing Outdoor Art Exhibition
The Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail is an absolutely amazing outdoor art exhibition and such a fun experience. Like no other art exhibition in the world, the Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail is a must do activity when travelling in Outback Queensland. An experience that you will remember for a very long time. There are 40 fantastic sculptures scattered along the 200km trail made by local artist Milynda Rogers.
How to Get There
The Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail is a loop that starts from Aramac which is less than an hour north of Barcaldine. The trail can also be accessed from Jericho. The trail goes through cattle stations along the Jericho-Aramac Road, then Ballynetty Road, until you reach Lake Dunn. These roads are all gravel roads, rough in some sections, but mostly in decent condition. From Lake Dunn back to Aramac the road is bitumen and much faster going. The trail is approximately 200kms long and will take at least 4-5 hours to complete if stopping at each sculpture and having some lunch along the way. The trail can be driven in any direction, we drove the gravel roads first and finished along the bitumen.
The Artist
Scattered at irregular intervals along the way are incredible sculptures formed from scrap metal, barbed wire and other bits and bobs. The artist, Milynda Rogers, lived on a property along the way and decided on this unique way to display her work. She is obviously inspired by the amazing wildlife and people of the area. The artworks are all very cleverly wrought, and a cheeky sense of humour is evident in a lot of them. Keeping an eye out to spot them on the roadside as you bump along is all part of the experience – apparently there is a Where’s Wally somewhere on the trail too although we failed to find him! Although hot and dusty it is very well worth the time to see some amazing Australian art in a very Australian setting!
The Sculptures
This is by far the best public outdoor art exhibition we have ever seen. The detail in each sculpture needs to be seen with your own eyes to appreciate the amount of time and effort required to create such stunning works of art. The placement of each sculpture into the natural outback environment has been so well thought out adding to the viewing pleasure. The returned soldier sitting on his horse high on top of a bright red rock is truly amazing and a sight to see as you drive up towards him. There are other clever placements of sculptures in trees, on stumps, on windmills, and integrated into station signs.
Peter’s favourite sculptures were that of the Returning Soldier and of the legendary Jonathan Thurston. Shayne found it hard to pick a favourite – the Emu Chicks, Thirsty Cockatoos and Dog were just a few. Below is a list of all the sculptures we saw along the way, we did somehow miss the Rainbow Serpent and Brolgas (however we saw a few real-life Brolgas when we left camp first thing in the morning just outside Barcaldine). We have also included a short video of all the sculptures that we posted on Instagram.
Roaming White Bull & Fighting Red Roos
Eagle and Nest of Chicks
Returned Soldier
Mustering Dog on a Rock
Frog and Dragonflies & Deer
Thirsty Cockatoos
Motorbike Musterer
Eagle and Snake & Bottle Tree
Kookaburra
Pig, Dingo on a Stump & Sideshow Bob Tree
Koala in a Tree & Plane
Goanna in Gum & Bush Spider
Butterflies & Waving Chopper Pilot
Cutting Horse Cowgirl
Ballyneety Bronc Rider
Crayfish & Frilled Neck Lizard
Emu and Chicks
Echidna
Jabirus
Spring Fish (different artist)
Pair of Plains Turkeys
Johnathan Thurston
Harry Redford Drover
Ram
Pushbike with Goanna and Kangaroos
Before You Visit
Before visiting the Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail, we would recommend downloading and printing off the sculpture trail information brochure as it is useful to have with you when driving the trail. We have included the link below. If you have this with you it really helps to identity each sculpture along the Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail in case you miss one, as well as giving you some idea on road names however, the trail is well sign posted.
We hope you get to enjoy the Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail on your next Outback Queensland adventure. If you have any questions or comments please post them at the bottom of this post. For more of our adventure stories you can read them here. To keep up to date on our future posts join the 4WD Adventurer Community here.
Thanks for reading.
The thoughts of Peter & Shayne.
