13-Dec-2003 -- This confluence point is approximately 125km north west of the townsite of Menzies.
Myself, father-in-law Barry Vaisey and friend Cameron Lea left Kalgoorlie at 5:00am and travelled north to Broad Arrow and west to Ora Banda. Both sites in the early 1900s were quite busy gold mining towns; today as with most Goldfields ghost towns little evidence remains of their colourful past except for their respective taverns and a couple of houses. From Ora Banda we travelled north along the Davyhurst Road which now forms part of the new Golden Quest Discovery Trail. This is a 965km self-drive trail that traces the early gold rushes of the 1890s. Many interesting sites are well sign-posted along the way with detailed stories about their significance and history provided.
We then proceeded along the Davyhurst - Mulline and Riverina - Snake Hill roads till we arrived just south of Lake Ballard. Located a few kilometres to the north-east is an area called Snake Hill. It is here that artist Andrew Gormley as part of the 2003 Perth International Arts Festival has placed 51 cast stainless steel figures. They are spread across a 7 sq km area of the saltpan area and are representations of the local Menzies townsfolk who had their bodies scanned and digitally mapped on computer. These digital forms were then reduced by 66% in width before being cast in a stainless steel alloy and placed 200 to 300 metres randomly apart on the saltlake. It's well worth a visit if you happen to be driving through the area.
After taking a couple of photos we then drove 80km north-west along the Menzies - Sandstone Road to where we got to within 1.9km of the confluence point. We left the road here and drove a kilometre south-west to the top of a ridge that forms part of the Brooking Hills. Unable to drive over the rocky outcrops we walked the last 900 metres west to the confluence point arriving around 10:00am. All in all it was a fairly easy trip compared to the last one (31°S 120°E). My next planned point is the impenetrable and challenging 30°S 120°E, which has beaten me on three previous occasions. I'll try it again after I obtain some 16ply crossplys though.
GPS : Trimble Pathfinder DGPS (sub metre)
Map Name : SH5105 Menzies 1:250000