Our first stop today was only a few kilometers south of Leonora at the Sons of Gwalia Gold Mine. Anyone who was associated with share trading in Australia (like me) would have heard this name before, and maybe unlike me knew the origin and meaning of the name. The discovery of the gold deposits and starting of the original mine was undertaken by some Welsh immigrants. Gwalia is the Welsh name for Wales. Today the mine still operates, though now as an underground mine, rather than the original open cut. Next to the present day mine site is a museum and a collection of old equipment and old buildings including the mine managers house (called Hoover House). That house is now a Bed and Breakfast and a cafe. Interestingly Herbert Hoover (eventually 31st president of the USA) took over as Mine Manager in 1898 at the age of 23 and had the managers house built; hence the name.

From Gwalia we traveled south through the very small town of Menzies and then west to Lake Ballard, which is the site of what must be one of the worlds more unusual art exhibitions. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Perth International Arts Festival British Artist Antony Gormley was invited to construct a work to mark the anniversary. Gormley chose Lake Ballard as the site for his creation and in December 2002 supervised the installation of 51 cast metal figures on the lake bed. For more about this "oddity" read here

There is a small bush campground at the western end of the southern shore of the lake. We shared it with about a dozen others.