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Photo: amandabhslater, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
An icon of weird Australia are the 51 forlorn statues standing on the dazzlingly salt encrusted surface of Lake Ballard. The lake stretches for almost 100km but the nook that everyone visits is 51 km from Menzies. The sculptures are the work of British artist Antony Gormley who was commissioned to create the artwork for the 2003 Perth International Arts Festival. The figures began life as laser scans of current Menzies residents. Each scan was shrunk by two-thirds, creating truncated figures that were cast in an alloy containing molybdenum, vanadium and titanium – metals found in the local rock. Most people tend to view them in early morning or late afternoon, not only because the low sun colours the hills a radiant orange and throws gangling shadows from the feet of sculpture and viewer alike, but mostly because the midday sun makes the scintillating surface of the lake unbearably hot. The viewing site begins at the base of a domed hill from which the sculptures radiate haphazardly outwards toward the horizon. The closer ones get the majority of visitors, making the area around them smudged with muddy foot prints. Avid photographers should head to the disregarded brothers on the outskirts where the pristine blanket of salt makes for more striking shots. During the day insistent flies are phenomenally abundant but they retreat after sundown. A net and/or repellent would make things more comfortable. Other than walking around and having your photo taken with your arm around your new spindly metal friend, there isn't much else to do. A climb to the top of the domed hill at the entry provides a different perspective. A narrow path (steep in places) spirals up the side to the relatively flat hilltop. Snake hill is 3 km further up the road and gives a wider view of the lake.
Lake Ballard is an ephemeral salt lake in the Shire of Menzies, Goldfields-Esperance area of Western Australia, with its eastern end about 18 kilometres (11 mi) north of Menzies.
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Headstones spread over a wide area document the harshness of life in early days of the frontier township. Most of the graves here are from 1900 to 1910 when accidents, illness, alcoholism and Typhoid epidemics ended numerous hard lived lives. The names and dates on some headstones have been weathered unreadable by the passing of time but a dozen ornately cut tin headstones, unique to the area, have endured as defiant monuments to the ingenuity of people forced to make do with little, even in death.
No one is certain when the oven was built, only that a succession of owners kept it in use until the 1940s. The tin shed bakehouse and accompanying store are long gone, leaving only a disintegrating block of bricks hung with a heavy iron door that must have seen a lot of loaves come out of it over the years.
Menzies Hotel
The last original pub left standing. It was renamed in 1990 but operated as the Railway Hotel since at least 1896. The present building is the hotel's second iteration – built after the original wood and corrugated iron structure burnt down in 1902. It was known for having the cheapest beer in town – a reputation it still holds today due only to a lack of competition.
The first hotel in town and the only one to have never caught fire. Now a private residence.
With a graceful façade befitting its name, this was the pre-eminent hotel during Menzies' golden years. The stonewalled rear section forms its humble beginnings in 1896. The foundations are said to conceal a time capsule containing coins and a newspaper. The hotel built its reputation and was extended several times under successive owners who, despite the hotel's sterling reputation, ended their tenure in bankruptcy. A fire in 1902 sparked a significant addition of the brick street frontage, including five bedrooms and a billiard room. The town's declining fortunes took the hotel down with it and it ceased trade in 1922. The visitors centre occupies the building now.
The original post office on this site was little more than a wood framed tent. A more substantial structure was built in 1896 on Brown Street, designed by legendary public works architect George Temple-Poole. An extension was made in 1903 out to Shenton Street to provide enough room for the 26 staff. The town's decline led to its closure in 1952, when it became a private residence. The owners demolished the original Brown Street section, leaving the part you see today.