Menzies, Menzies Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Menzies	- not defined -
Menzies Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Menzies is located 130 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie on the Goldfields Highway, and has a population today of around 100 people. The town contains a general store, hotel, historic town hall, and a few houses.

According to J. Brown, he left Coolgardie on September 18 1894, with George Kirby and Charles Jackman, and headed north to find gold. Brown had previously prospected for gold in New Guinea. North of 90 Mile (Goongarrie) they discovered gold at what would become the Lady Harriet Mine, about three kilometres south of present day Menzies. They were returning by camel to Coolgardie to register the lease when they met Canadian prospector Leslie Menzies at the 90 Mile Goldfield. It was a chance encounter as they had camped near his prospecting show. Menzies offered 1000 pounds to buy the lease, on condition they show him the workings.

Menzies travelled to the lease with J. McDonald. He told Brown he wanted to see the workings opened more before he made a decision, and in the meantime would have a look around. The agreement was if they found gold, to only peg one 24 acre lease, and tell the Brown party. Menzies discovered gold at what would become the Lady Shenton Mine, on the south-west outskirts of present day Menzies. He travelled back to Coolgardie to register the lease without telling Brown.

Not every Canadian gets a Western Australian town named after them. It is a shame it was not one with a stiffer moral back-bone. Menzies soon sold the Lady Shenton to a company. Two years later his reputation was sullied by his involvement in the North Dandalup gold scandal. McDonald died in 1905 in the Blackwood River Region. Menzies, whose reputation by this stage was shattered, left for remote parts, and was found years later as a woodcutter in the Peak Hill region north of Meekatharra, largely broke.

Gold mines occur both west and to a lesser extent east of the town, and extend some five kilometres south, either side of the Goldfields Highway. Most were active from 1895 to 1915, some again during the 1930's, and several open pits were developed on the old workings by Paddington Gold Ltd in 1996.

The area contains three north-south trending mineralised trends. Most of the ore bodies outcropped at the surface, and contained spectacular supergene grades. Gold is hosted in quartz veins or lodes, often with sulphides. In high metamorphic grade rocks, gold is found in pipe like shoots, 50 to 60 degree west dipping, and plunge 30 to 40 degrees south. Most contain only small haloes, limited regolith, and an absence of depletion zones within the saprolite. Shoots often pinch and swell. Several mines show significant gold grades in hard diorite metres away from the quartz veins.

Dominant rock types are amphibolite, with lesser basaltic lavas and tuffs, talc-chlorite and chlorite schist, volcanogenic sediments and minor felsic volcanic porphyry. Mines are located in a western or eastern domain, as alluded to above.

The western domain is more sheared, attenuated and metamorphosed in gold areas. It contains basalt, ultramafics and mafic schist, amphibolites and gabbro. Weathering is only to a few metres in the northern part, but much deeper over major shears.

The eastern domain contains Mg basalt, and muscovite schist often at the contact with granite. Overlying this is a sedimentary package including quartzite units, with quartz and andalusite. Over this is tremolite schist, talc-chlorite schist and minor serpentinite, then muscovite schists and felsic volcaniclastic schist, with some black shale. Upper levels contain amphibolite and basalt units, intruded by feldspar-quartz porphyry.

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