Percy Cobbett had been suffering meningitis and enteric fever for 30 days before his death. In Percy's marriage certificate, he was described as a 'gentleman'. HIs parents were married January 1859 Vol 2a Page 699; Robert Newberry b. abt Sept 1830, West Hackney, died March 1881 in Devon, England; Mother born 29 October 1828 in Hackney, Middlesex, died 18 March 1904 in Bournemouth, Dorset. Percy was the second of three children born to this couple. His siblings were his older brother, Charles Newberry born January 1863 in Southgate, Middlesex, and his younger sister, Eleanor Florence born 30 December 1866 in Southgate. Percy's Probate record: COBBETT Percy Newberry of Menzies Western Australia died 3 January1897 Probate London 8 July to Sydney Bush Cripps merchant and Charles Newberry Cobbett M.D. (His older brother) Effects 2600 pounds. In Western Australia, probate and administration was granted in the Supreme Court with Letters of Administration (with Will annexed), Percy left £50 to Robert Rivington Pilkington.

Little Eleanor May was the third of 14 children born to this couple between 1895 and 1917. Alfred and Annie Bertha were married 13 June 1894 at Broken Hill, New South Wales, where their first child, Louisa Mary, was born on 14 December 1895 ((Birth Registration 7831/1895, Broken Hill).  It seems they then came to Western Australia, where Alfreader Menzies Kate was born in Menzies in 1896 (Birth Registration 635/1897) and Eleanor May was born Menzies 1897 (Birth Registration 636/1897). Other children born in this family were: Vera Bertha born in Menzies 1898 (Birth Registration 1005/1898); Dorothy May born 1900 at Malcolm; Alfred John born 19 September 1903 at Mount Malcolm (Birth Registration 3561/1903); Albert George born 2 September 1904 at Mt Malcolm (Birth Registration 3855/1904); Myra Annie born 11 August 1906 at Mount Malcolm (Birth Registration 4300116/1906, Mt Margaret); Francis William born 10 December 1908 at Mount Malcolm (Birth Registration 4300022/1909, Mt Margaret); Sylvia Marjory born 15 August 1910 at Mount Malcolm (Birth Registration 400125/1910, Mt Margaret); Phillip James Ritchie born 26 August 1911 at Mount Malcolm (Birth Registration 4300098/1911, Mt Margaret); Walter Adolph born 5 May 1913 at Mt Lawley (Birth Registration 100837/1913, Perth); Robert Anzac born 18 April 1916 at Mount Malcolm (Birth Registration 100675/1916, Perth).

The children's father, Alfred, born in Broken Hill, New South Wales, in 1867, died 1925 in Royal Perth Hospital, aged 57 years, and his wife, who was born in Germany in 1877, died 14 April 1928 at 36 Gardiner Street, Mt Lawley, aged 51 years.

Little Eleanor May's older sister, Alfreader (Freda) Menzies Kate, married a stockman, Robert Wilson, and died 9 June 1919 at Ord River Station. Her story appears on this website.

Known as Lui.

The charred body of Lui Marlo was found in his camp late on Tuesday 1 August.  The townspeople heard an explosion and then saw flames.  It was found that Marlo's head had been blown off.  The police believed that he put a detonator in his mouth and then lit the fuse after setting fire to his camp. He had threatened to commit suicide for some weeks. He suffered from wart injuries and miner's phthisis.

Lui enlisted into the AIF, Service Number 1232, joining 13 Reinforcements, 18 Battalion Mining Corps, Sapper 2, at the age of 27 years. He served from 1915 to 1919.

The deceased had just arrived in Menzies from Lawler's, when he dropped dead in the main street near Menzies Hotel. He had come in with pack-horses for the purpose of procuring a load of provisions for his mates, who were working in the vicinity of Lawler's. At the time of his death, he was in the company of another man who had known him for years. The men had been working some 16 miles from Menzies on the Mt Ida road. An inquest held at Menzies on 4th November 1895 (as reported in the Police Gazette No. 47, 1895), by the Warden, Mr. F. Gill, Resident Magistrate, and a jury, when after the evidence of Dr. Collis and others had been taken, a verdict was returned that the deceased had died from Natural Causes. He had apparently arrived in Menzies from Lawlers with pack horses, for the purpose of procuring a load of provisions for his mates, who were working in the vicinity of Lawler's. At the time of his death, he was in the company of another man who had known him for years.

Walter Williams died three miles on the Mt Ida side of the Ghost Rocks. He is buried where he was found, 16 miles from Menzies on the Mt Ida road. A prospector at the Mt Ida field, at the time of the tragedy, Williams was a partner in the prospecting syndicate called "Glimmer of Hope". The other members of his party were Charles Prangle Wansbrough and Caleb William Massingham (Walter William's cousin). They had pegged a claim at Mt Ida and, being the first to find gold there, they were granted a reward claim. Owing to a lack of proper facilities for treating the ore, they were forced to temporarily abandon the claim. Walter Williams had decided to go for a trip to his home in Victoria and started off for Menzies, a distance of 67 miles on his bicycle. The weather was very hot and water scarce. Williams was found dead on the road between Mt Ida and Menzies, by two prospectors named Wilson and Daley. These men were passed by the cyclist, who was apparently full of health and vigour, just as he was leaving Mt Ida. When they reached a point some 40 miles from Menzies, they came upon his machine in the road and saw the tracks of where he had started to walk. Some miles further on, they discovered his boots lying the road and saw where he had eventually started to crawl on his hands and knees. A little further on, they came upon his dead body. The deceased was then only 16 miles from Menzies and the discoverers of the gruesome remains hastened there to report the matter to the authorities. The police left to bury the body and glean particulars as to how the deceased met his death. The Mt Ida Prospectors' Association erected a plaque in his memory in 1939. A railing was placed around his grave and a handsome headstone erected. Interestingly, in 1988, Martin Gole and Rob Hill, of the CSIRO Division of Exploration Geoscience, were working in the Siberia-Ora Banda-Menzies-Mt Ida area, looking at an extensive (35 by 130km), very thick (600-800m) lava flow of a type called komatiite. Such rocks are the hosts of the nickel deposits. North-west of Menzies, and at the base of the lava flow, is the grave of Walter S Williams. They used a photo of the headstone as the frontispiece in a geological guide book and have called the lava flow the "Walter Williams Ultramafic Unit" after this intrepid prospector. The name was approved by the Australian Stratigraphic Nomenclature Committee. Geologists name geological features for ease of reference. Williams' parents were married in 1866 in Victoria (Marriage Registration 737/1866). His sister was Margaret Benson born 1867 (Birth Registration 5088/1867, Walhalla). His father. living in Perth, a former farmer from Victoria, died 18 miles from Menzies (document Cons3458 item 1896/006 held at the State Records Office).