Rutters Grave Inscription

No idea Alan,

It would have been around the time when Peter Muir was running around out there. Also there were lots of Geos and such out there as well. It it was a mining bod we may never know.

always gives me a chuckle graffiti and rubish
if that was GB 7-3-12 it would have 40 follow ups about the morons of today out bush

same goes for rubish
pages of followups about people of today with no respect but an old woodcutters camp with junk strewn everywhere piles of HP sauce bottles and tins is a must see
were a funny mob

March 1970 was just after the Poseidon Nickel shares bubble burst - but the exploration search for nickel was still ramping up.
The Goldfields was chock-a-block full of exploration teams, peggers, geo's, gridline cutters, bulldozing contractors (some peggers just used their Landrovers and axes to bulldoze in gridlines, the bigger operators used dozers) - and drilling rigs.

The nickel exploration and nickel mine development boom ran well into the late-1970's, but 1970-72 was the period when nickel exploration went completely berserk.
There wasn't a piece of the Goldfields that wasn't pegged in that period.
With the laws relating to pegging an exploration lease in that era (under the old W.A. Mining Act), one could tie up large areas with an exploration permit very cheaply - and every man and his dog did so.
Then the lease-holders set to to grid the block they pegged. It was reasonably cheap to do this, and it fulfilled the expenditure requirements and made the block attractive to, and set up for, immediate drilling (when you could get a rig!).

So the answer to the question is - it could have been any one of a hundred possible nickel search operatives.
Perhaps a hint might be it was someone who was well-prepared with a hammer and chisel, and who had pretty good dexterity skills to do the engraving so neatly.

I'd suggest a drill rig mechanic, or someone of a similar trade, with a good comprehensive toolkit.
You couldn't do that engraving neatly with just a geo's rock-chipping hammer, it's been done with a hammer and chisel.

So we're looking for the local hammer-and-chisel merchant who calls himself a mechanic. O.K., own up - who fits the bill? [;-)

Cheers, Ron.