Lake Ballard

In 2003 the sculptor Antony Gormley installed fifty-one figures on Lake Ballard for the Perth International Arts Festival, and they stayed. Each was made from a laser scan of a resident of nearby Menzies, reduced to a thin abstracted form and cast in an alloy including local metals, then placed across around ten square kilometres of salt pan so that walking between them takes hours and most are visible only as marks on the white surface. The scale is the work: the figures shrink and reappear as heat shimmer rises, and the lake and sky dominate everything. A low island near the access point gives a view over the whole installation.

What you actually see

• The steel figures - fifty-one thin forms scattered across the salt pan.
• The salt lake - ten square kilometres of white crust and shimmer.
• The lookout island - a rise near the access point giving an overview.
• The Goldfields setting - red earth and scrub around the lake.

When to go

April to September; summer heat on the open lake is dangerous, with temperatures over forty degrees and no shade at all. Sunrise and sunset give the strongest light. After rain the surface floods, reflects the sky and becomes impassable.

Honest expectations

The access road is unsealed. Walking to the far figures takes hours across a hot, featureless surface, and people underestimate it; water and sun cover are essential. Wet conditions can leave the lake unwalkable, and there are no facilities.

Nearby

Menzies is the nearest town; Kalgoorlie lies south and Gwalia north.