Within a few years, prolific artist Milynda Rogers singlehandedly transformed an off-the-beaten-track area in the central west of Queensland's cattle country into a road trip destination for art lovers. 
The Lake Dunn Sculpture trail is perhaps the largest outdoor art exhibition in the world.

The essentials

Suggested start/finish: Aramac

Medium difficulty, 200 kilometres, 1–2 days

Unsealed road except the section between Lake Dunn and Aramac.

1. Aramac to Ballyneety Road

The Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail (LDST) has its beginning in the little unassuming town of Aramac, 68km due north of Barcaldine. From there it forms a generous triangle through cattle country. The LDST is one of the longest, if not the longest outdoor art display in the world, with 40 sculptures placed along its way.

 

The first sculpture is in Aramac itself, a giant red roo on top of a tin shed just outside of town. On the LDST proper, just after the Jericho-Aramac Road (right off Eastmere Road, heading east) turns from bitumen to dirt, are two easily missed brolgas, crossing beaks like two fencing opponents. The next sculpture "Eagle and chick", however, is an eyecatcher: Placed on a large rock just on the roadside, an eagle looks towards its nest, complete with chick, placed on a second solitary rock.

Coming around a shallow bend in the unsealed Jericho-Aramac Road reveals a flat-topped rocky promontory above the road It is part of a shallow cliff line that started to dominate the landscape a few kilometres back. On top of the promontory, prominently placed on the edge above the road, the silhouette of a figure on a horse immediately captures the attention. In an iconic stance, slightly bent forward, the hat pulled low, the figure seems to stare out from the vantage point into the heat shimmering expanse. The rifle, draped over the shoulder, is clearly visible. It is the "Returned Soldier", an incredibly realistic looking life-sized sculpture, made from barbed wire and scrap metal.

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There are several more sculptures still to be discovered on this first section of the LDST: the "Dog on the Rock", the almost invisible "Possum in the Tree", two large dragonflies clinging to the windmill tower of a disused well, a deer and the quirky "Thirsty Cockatoos": a Gold beer bottle made of drums and three Black cockatoos on a steel frame with letter forming the word "Dry Alice" in reverence to the close-by, almost always dry Alice River and the local grazier who loves Gold beer and has a mailbox in shape of a Gold beer. It always pays to look for the little details in the works. They reveal the artist’s sometimes wicked sense of humour. The "Dog on the Rock" is a perfect example, having crystal balls.

The LDST is however not just about Milynda's art installations. Not far from the “Eagles Nest” and accessible via a short side track is the Grey Rock Historical Reserve. There, a reddish sandstone bluff is sitting on a layer of exposed marine deposits, with hundreds of names and dates scraped into the soft grey rock. That ongoing trend to create a petroglyphic visitor book may have started by coach passengers during the 19th century. They would have been enroute from Clermont to Aramac on Cobb & Co coaches and would have stayed the night at the Wayside Hotel nearby. Only meagre stone foundations and piles of glass shards mark the site of the pub today. 

2.Ballyneety Road to Lake Dunn

Just past the "Motorbike Musterer", 77 kilometres after leaving Aramac, the Ballyneety Road branches off to the left. This road forms the next section of the LDST and offers the biggest density of sculptures along the entire art triangle. It starts with eagle holding a wriggling snake in his beak and a life-size bottle tree, not far from the turn-off to Boongoondoo Station

Milynda Rogers Artist and the brain behind the Sculpture Trail is Milynda Rogers. Together with husband Daryl, she managed Boongoondoo Station, a 50,000-hectare cattle property, until 2020. The turn-off to the homestead is marked by two metal yellow-crested cockatoos sitting cheekily on the station sign. Milynda came to her calling relatively late. "At school I did do sculpture, but it was clay and clay fired. When I left school, I focused on painting. I've gotten back into sculpture after seeing some sculptures over in Blackall." What she saw there was a big ball made from wire and an eagle made out of scrap metal. "I just loved the idea of using the wire and the old junk to make a sculpture." The beginnings of the LDST were unintended and modest. "It didn't really start out to be a sculpture trail," she explains. "It started with me putting one sculpture out on the road because I didn't know where to put it." That was in 2013 and the sculpture, still one of the most memorable ones along the LDST, is a three-meter-high bottle tree made of drums, wrapped in barbed wire. Its leaves are tags that are usually found on the ears of cattle.

What follows is one sculpture after another and driving is very much a stop-and-go session: Amongst others there is a pig on the roadside, a gigantic spider lurking in its net, an aeroplane placed in a paddock with hundreds of termite mounds and a chopper with a friendly waving pilot at Clare Station. Highly dynamic are the sculptures of "Cutting Horse Cowgirl" and "Bronc", a tribute to the Ballyneety Rodeo. This section also features one of Milynda's newer creations, two yellow-black butterflies that cling to the smooth trunk of a large gum tree.

After 65 kilometres of varied open-air exhibition, it is a natural – and quite surprising – attraction that marks (off to the right) the end of this second section: Lake Dunn, a large freshwater lake. The access track to the water is marked, not surprisingly, by yet another sculpture: a giant crayfish. Named after stockman James Dunn, the lake is over three kilometres long and 1.6 kilometres wide. A paradise for dedicated birdwatchers and anglers alike – Golden Perch and Black Bream get the attention here – the lake is also a good spot for water sports. Considering the location of the lake in the generally dry or even semi-arid region, water skiing, sailing and windsurfing seem rather exotic pastimes. A caravan park and simple beach shacks cater for visitors wishing to stay a night or two.

3. Lake Dunn to Armanac

Ignore right-hand turns after the lake and Balneety Road rolls straight on into sealed Eastmere Road, heralding the third and last, 67-kilometre-long leg of the LDST back to Aramac. Along this stretch stand some of the last additions of the sculpture trail: a frilled neck lizard approximately 20 kilometres past Lake Dunn, and an impressive ram closer to Aramac.

 

Where the "Rainbow Serpent" raises its head is the turn-off to a more curious attraction along the LDST that appeals to the more esoteric inclined travellers: the White Station Healing Circle. On top of a gentle hill are knee-high stones laid out in a large circle with a diameter of seven meters. Within is a smaller circle with a cross in the middle, that according to the creators, The Foundation of Heaven, represents the eye of God.

Sculpture fans along the last 30 kilometres of the LDST still have a lot to look forward to: Birds like the giant jabirus and the stocky plain turkeys features along the way as well as local legend Harry Redford, drover, stockman and cattle thief. Besides rural scenes and animals, history and historical characters important to the area are Milynda's topic. 

4. Aramac to Muttaburra

While in the area it is well worth to include a side trip to Muttaburra. This is the closest town to the geographical centre of the State and therefore officially the ‘heart of Queensland’. It lies 85 kilometres north-west of Aramac. In Muttaburra almost everything revolves around the dinosaurs that once roamed this area: a life-size replica in town and a museum make sure of that. Another attraction is the Dr Arratta Memorial Museum, originally the town’s hospital. And there’s a deal more outdoor art: the ‘Shearer-and-Sheep’ artwork at the Longreach entrance to town; Barb the dinosaur (made of kilometres of barbed wire fencing), brolgas, a plane, a big chair, a rain tree made from wire and a yellowbelly crafted from shearers’ combs and cutters.

Road Trips Australia Backroads and Byways by Don Fuchs ($44.99, RRP) is available from all good bookstores plus online from woodslane.com.au.