Left Kalgoorlie about 9:00 and headed north to an old mining town called Menzies. Menzies is on the Goldfields Highway 130km north of Kalgoorlie. Turns out despite the apparent lack of residents, the town has created a historic record of its glory days as a gold mining centre. Apparently at one stage there were 13 pubs in Menzies, today we didn't see 13 people. We spent a fascinating hour strolling up and down the immaculate main street reading about the town's history and admiring the numerous sculptures depicting various aspects of the towns heritage.
From Menzies we decided to venture some 50km to Lake Ballard. Leaving our rig and Hanno's van in Menzies, we crammed in amongst the outboards and Engels in Hanno's Cruiser and headed west. The trip was certainly worthwhile.
Internationally renowned pommy artist Antony Gormley was commissioned to mark the 50th anniversary of the Perth International Arts Festival in 2003 and he created 51 sculptures created by using laser scans of 51 of Menzies inhabitants. He used these 3 dimensional scans to map each body with half a million digital coordinates. Cross sections were then taken throughout the body, reduced by two thirds and then connected. They were then cast in alloys containing metals found in the area.
Gormley himself said of the sculptures "... They reveal an attitude in a taut abstract shape formed by the passage of a persons life. Out of the salt lake they become antennae in space in relationship with each other but also with the land and the limit of our perception: the horizon."
Gormley has done numerous works including "Quantum Cloud" on the banks of the Thames in Greenwich where Michelle is working, but of this work titled Inside Australia he said, "Inside Australia was the most difficult, long distance, intense, exhilarating, fatiguing endeavour of my life, and the most rewarding."
We spent some time plodding through the muddy salt lake examining many of these amazing sculptures. We finished our trip to Lake Ballard with a short but steep climb to the top of a rocky "island" in the salt lake from where we could see most of the 51 sculptures spread out over the 10 square kilometres of lake.
Our detour to Lake Ballard, as suggested by Stelleen, was certainly one we will long remember.
The day finished about 100km further north at Malcolm Dam, 13km out from Leonora. Scenic spot and we camped on the water's edge about 230km closer to Exmouth.