Lake Ballard is an

ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...

salt lake A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per liter). I ...

in the

Shire of Menzies The Shire of Menzies is a local government area in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, north of Kalgoorlie. It covers an area of , and its seat of government is the town of Menzies. History The Shire of Menzies originated a ...

, Goldfields-Esperance area of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, with its eastern end about north of

Menzies Menzies is a Scottish surname, with Gaelic forms being Méinnearach and Méinn, and other variant forms being Menigees, Mennes, Mengzes, Menzeys, Mengies, and Minges. Derivation and history The name and its Gaelic form are probably derived f ...

Sculptures

In 2003, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the

Perth International Arts Festival Perth Festival, named Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF) between 2000 and 2017, and sometimes referred to as the Festival of Perth, is Australia's longest-running cultural festival, held annually in Western Australia. The program features ...

the ''Inside Australia'' exhibition was commissioned. The artist and

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award). ...

winner

Antony Gormley Sir Antony Mark David Gormley (born 30 August 1950) is a British sculptor. His works include the ''Angel of the North'', a public sculpture in Gateshead in the north of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998; ''Another Pl ...

installed 51 metal sculptures over an area of on the bed of the lake. Each sculpture represented a local resident of Menzies, derived from the laser scans of the town's residents. The statues were to be removed at the conclusion of the festival but remain as a tourist exhibition. It is the largest outdoor art gallery on earth.

Banded stilts

The lake is used as a breeding site for

banded stilt The banded stilt (''Cladorhynchus leucocephalus'') is a Bird migration#Short-distance and altitudinal migration, nomadic wader of the stilt and avocet family, Recurvirostridae, native to Australia. It belongs to the monotypic genus ''Cladorhync ...

s following major flood events. The stilts nest in large close-packed colonies on low islands in ephemeral inland salt lakes such as

Lake Eyre Lake Eyre ( ), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in the east-central part of the Far North (South Australia), Far North region of South Australia, some 700 km (435 mi) north of Adelaide. It is the larg ...

Lake Barlee Lake Barlee is an intermittent salt lake. With a surface area of , it is the second largest lake in Western Australia. Description Lake Barlee is situated on the Yilgarn block southeast of Youanmi, Western Australia, Youanmi and north of Bull ...

and Lake Ballard. The last recorded nesting on the lake was in 1995 following the aftermath of

Cyclone Bobby Severe Tropical Cyclone Bobby set numerous monthly rainfall records in parts of the Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia, dropping up to of rain in February 1995. The fourth named storm of the 1994–95 Australian region c ...

. The lake, along with the neighbouring Lake Marmion some to the east, has been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

as a

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA), because it has supported a high proportion of the known banded stilt mass breeding events.

References

{{reflist Ballard Ballard Ballard Important Bird Areas of Western Australia Tourist attractions in Western Australia Shire of Menzies

Sculptures

Banded stilts

See also

References