Blowfly Gold Mine (Alathea), Menzies, Menzies Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Blowfly Gold Mine (Alathea)	Mine
Menzies	- not defined -
Menzies Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

There is gold showing freely at the Blowfly mine, but no-one ever worked out how to get it out of the stone through the battery process.

The original prospectors could not be located. The first information found was 1910, stating the mine had been idle for some time, but taken up by Manton and Newson (surnames). The mine had been re-named the Alathea, probably because a blow fly is a despised creature, and not in keeping with the grandeur of a gold mine.

A five head mill was erected, and stone taken out of the Hanging Wall showing gold freely, but little of it came out in the amalgam. Manton and Newson abandoned the lease, leaving employee wages unpaid.

The Dreadnought company acquired the lease, then found the battery and machinery was owned by someone else, and had been removed. As a result they abandoned the lease with no work done.

In 1914, E. Joyce of Kalgoorlie took up the lease. He opened up a lens of stone 15 feet long, and 5 feet wide at the 90 foot level. Twelve tonnes was broken out showing free gold. After sending it through the battery only 2.5 ounces was obtained. A small parcel of ore was sent to Perth for analysis, but the outcome is unknown.

The Blowfly is approximately five kilometres south-east of Menzies. To reach take the gravel road east from the centre of Menzies, then the right fork. The road winds its way through low hills past the True Blue and Maranoa Gold Mines, then narrows into a track heading due south-east to the mine. A small area of mullock and a couple of shafts its all that can be hoped for. A track just before the mine heads south-east then south to the Springfield and then Emu mines. This route passes through the Menzies borefield and access is not allowed.

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