Author: Anna Lakshmi

We are a family of four and are nuts about traveling. Our name reflects this! We love sharing the joy and love of traveling and adventure! Let's the fun begin!

Insight into “insiders” of Lake Ballard

Lake Ballard is a salt lake in the northern Goldfields area of WA. It is known for its interesting “Inside Australia” outdoor art gallery. The display pictures 51 alloy cast sculptures derived from laser scans of inhabitants of a nearby town Menzies.

Photographers’ paradise

Lake Ballard with its world’s largest outdoor art gallery attracts many visitors every year. The positioning of the sculptures on a dry salt lake makes it a unique sight. It is also a favourite for many photographers. We visited Lake Ballard twice. First time, in 2020 we visited Lake Ballard at sunset. (We camped at Morapoi station at that time.) Second time (in July 2025) I was hoping to take pictures of the sculptures at sunrise and at night. For that reason, I chose to camp there for the night. Unfortunately, we arrived late and missed the sunset. Astrophotography didn’t happen either due to a bright full moon.

My only hope was for the sunrise. I made sure I got up early. The morning did not disappoint. The colours of the sky together with some soft puffy clouds were the perfect backdrop. The way the sculptures are positioned makes them an ideal place for photography. You can walk around the lake and find the perfect angle. I was quite happy with the results I’ve got.

Each sculpture at Lake Ballard is unique

Created by a British artist Anthony Gormley, the sculptures reveal each inhabitant’s life passage. While the sculptures are of the height of a person, the cross sections are reduced by two thirds. This makes them look unrealistically thin.

We didn’t have time to look at all 51 sculptures but those that we saw, were predominantly of women. Does it mean that the women outnumbered men in those days? Or their life was more interesting to an observer?  I didn’t get an answer to that question. But judging from excessive curves of their spines, the life of those people must have been full of hardship. Some of them reveal severe cases of lordosis and kyphosis. They, obviously, didn’t know anything about yoga, which helps to reduce muscular tension and flatten those curves! 🙂

Although the sculptures do look similar to an untrained eye, each one is unique.

Camping at Lake Ballard

There is a nice picnic (day use) area, as well as a free camping area at Lake Ballard. Facilities include toilet, rubbish bins, fire pits and picnic tables.

How to get there

Lake Ballard is 51km from Menzies via sealed road. It is 200km north of Kalgoorlie. Lake Ballard is one of the sites along Golden Quest Discovery Trail. So you can also access it from Coolgardie in the south.

(Road from Coolgardie to Lake Ballard with a detour to Rowles Lagoon – July 2025).

Or you can get to Lake Ballard from Leonora in the north. We drove on Mount Ida unsealed road from Leonora to Lake Ballard in July 2020. We made a brief stop to look at Copperfield. It is an abandoned town which in 1898 housed 500 people and had state battery. Now only the old machinery is the reminder of what existed before.

(Copperfield)

(The view from the Snake Hill Lookout further down the road)

Solicitude of Lake Ballard

Lake Ballard is mostly dry and crispy but can be wet especially closer to the carpark area. There are a lot of salt lakes that you can see in the outback. The Wongutha people are Natives of the Goldfields in WA. They believe the salt lakes were created by the tears of the silver-grey crows. Long ago, the crows cried because they felt not accepted by other birds and animals of the bush.

You can easily spend hours, walking around the lake and looking at different shapes of the statues. Sunset and sunrise are particularly magical. As complete darkness sets, the lake becomes a divinely serene place. You can just stand in the middle of it and enjoy true solitude.

Gwalia Ghost Town

Gwalia is a historic, living ghost town in the Goldfields region of Western Australia, near town Leonora. It is 828km east of Perth and 3km from Leonora.

The town flourished when Sons of Gwalia Mine operated there from 1896 to 1963 and produced over 2.5 million ounces of gold. It was the second largest gold mine in Western Australia. At its peak in 1911, Gwalia had a population of around 1100 people. Today, most places are abandoned with the exception of just a few. The main attractions are the Museum, the open cut mine and Hoover House.

Hoover House

Hoover House was built for the Sons of Gwalia Mine’s then manager, Herbert Hoover. He later became the 31st President of USA. Hoover House now offers luxurious accommodation and serves coffee and cakes.

Gwalia Museum

Gwalia Museum has interesting display of indoor exhibits, as well as outdoor mining equipment.

Lessons learnt from the past

After a quick look at the mine, as well as Hoover House, I spend most of my time at the Mine Office exhibition. There I was fascinated to learn about the history of the place, which had a significant cultural meaning. A large portion of Gwalia residents during the Sons of Gwalia Mine operation were migrants from Italy and the former Yugoslavia. Reading stories of those migrants, I resonated with some of them. Like, Lucia, I too came to Australia as a migrant, leaving all my family behind and starting a new life here. Like her, I too, am finding it hard to be a first-generation migrant. But when life throws this challenge and you deal with it, you become a stronger person.

There are many lessons we can learn by reading and studying these stories. In the old days, life used to be simple and now it is quite complex. As Stephen Peacock, one of Gwalia’s residents put it:

Well, Gwalia was a really interesting and eye opening stopover. But now, we are heading to famous Lake Ballard. It’s time to go!

Ghost town Kookynie

Kookynie ghost town entrance sign

Kookynie is a “living ghost town” in Western Australia. It is part of the 965km Golden Quest Discovery Trail in Goldfields. Back in 1907 during golden mining rush, Kookynie was a vibrant community. At that time the town counted more than 3500 people. Now it is a deserted town with no more than 20 people. Although, the town boasts Grand Hotel that is still in operation. It offers meals, drinks and overnight accommodation to visitors and locals.

In the old days, Kookynie had 11 (!) hotels, a Town Hall which held regular Saturday night entertainment activities, the first public swimming pool in the Goldfields, a number of businesses and public facilities and even its own brewery and soft drink manufacturers! Many of its buildings are now gone completely or ruined. But the memories and stories still live displayed through remnants of buildings and interpretive signs.

Here used to be the social centre of the town…. Not any longer.

In the past Kookynie was one of the many towns in this area that attracted a lot of gold mining prospectors. As people still go out to these places and do actually manage to find gold, our kids were seriously hoping to become modern day prospectors and find gold too!

While the kids were busy looking for gold, the adults wandered about the deserted place, each deep in their own reflections….

Kids were fascinated with a number of old antique rusty cars that seemed become part of the landscape quite long time ago. How much fun it is to climb on top of one such car!

…. or to sit inside and steer the wheel!

Photo by Iulia Galushina

Niagara Dam

A few kilometres further away from Kookynie is Niagara Dam, which was built in 1897 to provide water for the nearby town and the steam engines during the early goldrush days. It became redundant a few years later when plentiful underground water was discovered at Kookynie.

Now Niagara Dam is a popular picnic spot, offering wonderful opportunities for photography.

Niagara Dam near Kookynie

It is also a free camp spot with toilets, gas barbeque, picnic tables, and cement fire rings. Sounds like a perfect place for our next camping trip!

The sun was setting down, which meant it was time to go back to Morapoi Station and prepare for the night.

Lake Douglas or how we survived cold in the Goldfields

After driving for nearly 600km from Perth, we chose a free camping stop Lake Douglas, 12km south west of Kalgoorlie in WA’s Goldfields. Following the signs for 3.5km off the main road, we arrived at a secluded camping spot. It had a toilet, however, we decided to turn right from the dirt road and camp on the side of the lake. This spot offered a more picturesque view. 

Unhitching our caravan was the first job the men had to do. Meanwhile the kids set off gathering wood for a camp fire. Having a mobile connection at the place was very handy. I had to call my husband (who didn’t join us for this trip due to work commitments) to get his help with unhitching over the phone.

Surviving cold night at Lake Douglas

That first night in the early days of July was our first test of survival. Quick meal of pasta and canned meat was followed by hot tea near the camp fire, which was everyone’s favourite pass time. Sitting around the campfire was probably the highlight of every evening. We sang songs, talked and kids played games. As time went on, it was getting colder and colder and I started to think of unpacking and preparing the bed for the night. The temperature kept dropping.

I found that the only way to stay warm at night was to use multiple layers. I had 5 layers of clothes and 3 blankets on top. Plus I had a beanie and I had to cover my face down to the nostrils with a scarf because my nose was so cold that I couldn’t sleep. Upon waking up in the morning, I checked the temperature inside our caravan. 2 degrees! It is the lowest temperature I had to sleep in. However, we survived and even managed to get some sleep!

Kids were quite excited to get up in the morning and discover ice on top of the tent. For someone who has not seen real snow, this thin layer of ice was a pure delight!

Having breakfast out in the nature, with the sun out and beginning to give some of its warmth was quite a pleasant experience. But it is time to move on to our next destination!

See you at Morapoi Station, near Kookynie!