I’ve been wanting to see the “Inside Australia” sculpture exhibit by Antony Gormley for at least 5 years.
I first heard of this installation while taking travel agent training about the state of Western Australia. 51 weird-looking human sculptures in a remote dry lake in the Australian Outback? I immediately put it on my “Dream Destinations” list.
The promotional photos emphasized an eerie beauty to these spare metal sculptures scattered around a huge expanse of lake bed. Most of the year this lake is dry, crusted with flakes of salt over red mud. The sun reflects off the salt flats, adding to the feel of isolation of the site, almost as if it were in the polar regions. The sculptures are placed 50 to 100 yards apart, and visitor tracks from one to another create weird patterns in the lake bed.
Why did I want to see it?
The remoteness attracted me; the fact that Gormley was invited to Australia and chose this place for his installation fascinated me; it just seemed so far off the beaten path and a quirky place to see that I knew I wanted to experience it for myself.
I was finally able to plan the trip there this year.
With my husband behind the wheel of our rented AWD Mitusbishi Outlander, we drove 82.5 miles of the Goldfields Highway from the mining town of Kalgoorlie to the even smaller town of Menzies, then on a mostly gravel road for some 30 miles to reach the western end of Lake Ballard and the sculptures.
We followed the dirt road past a couple of camper vans, drove to the edge of the lake, parked the car, got on our throwaway shoes and started our trek onto the lake bed itself.
Seeing the installation
The first sculptures are perhaps 75 yards out into the lake bed, in red mud. Closer to the parking areas the sculptures are surrounded by many lines of footprints. Another two hundred yards or so was an edge of white, the beginning of the salt bed proper. The salt crystals sparkled in the sun, looking like snow, but it wasn’t cold or wet. We walked on the white crust fairly easily, our feet crunching the crystals, occasionally breaking through to the red mud beneath.
Once we got to one sculpture, we could see more in every direction, each about a hundred yards apart. I wondered about the people who agreed to be measured for the sculptures. What did they think of how they looked made from steel? Had they ever come out to see them?
It felt a little strange to trek from one figure to another with no set path, but each one was different and had its own perspective of the lake. There was no sound except the wind. We were the only ones out on the lake. I had made it here. It was just as beautiful and weird as I had hoped.
We wandered from sculpture to sculpture for about an hour and a half.
We didn’t see nearly all the 51 sculptures. With a range of nearly 3 square miles it would take 4 to 5 hours to see every one. And the walking can be heavy going at times.
Everyone seems to have a travel “bucket list” and I’m no exception. I wrote out a list a few years ago and put it on the wall at my desk. I’m grateful when I can mark a place off the list, The Inside Australia exhibit was especially gratifying to experience because I had wanted to see it for so long and it’s just as weird and beautiful as I’d hoped.
Good to Know:
Lake Ballard is remote, but not especially difficult to reach.
There is good signage and the park has picnic tables and some camping spots scattered around. There is a public toilet at the beginning of the park.
Kalgoorlie is the nearest large town, about 300 miles east of Perth, easily accessible with flights on QantasLink and Virgin Australia.
There are seasonal tours that take people out to Lake Ballard, but if you’re comfortable driving, it’s about 2 hours from Kalgoorlie.
Stop at the Visitors Centre in Menzies, to pick up maps and get the latest info about the lake conditions. You can also go online and get the maps and information.
Plan on bringing throwaway shoes, as the lake can be wet and muddy, and sometimes will have standing water. If it is very wet, people go barefoot.
If you are interested in camping, the park area does have unimproved campsites. It would be great to see the sculptures at sunset or sunrise and the stars at night would be amazing. There is no water available so be prepared.
