The major tourist attraction here is "Outback at Isa" which combines the city's information centre, a walk through history of Mount Isa Mines and city, an Aboriginal art gallery, a display and lab about the Riversleigh fossil fields, and the Hard Times underground mine tour. All top quality, but the mine tour leads the pack.
A sample mine has been built 20 metres below the centre. It has about 1km of tunnels .. a main one with several smaller ones branching off. In each of these is a working example of most aspects of the mining ... And in several we were given hands on opportunity to handle working equipment like drills. It took them 8 years to build, and ithree tours a day are guided by working miners or recently retired. They dressed us up in orange overalls and safety helmet with lamp, and huge boots ( as there is a lot of seepage underground ). Took 3 hours, ending with a cuppa in the crib room. Our guide was excellent. Answered all questions and had a great sense of humour. Limited to 21 per tour.
Back on surface they have also developed a fine Outback Park displaying most of the tress and plants to be found in this part of the world, all nicely signposted. That all took up the greater part of the day. In late afternoon I drove out to Lake Moondarra, about 20km, on the Leichhardt River which supplies water for the town and mines. It is quiet large, with boating and picnicking facilities etc.. Watched the sunset there ... very peaceful.
On advice I ate at the Isa Hotel tonight and had their famous Kurumba Wild Caught Barramundi meal. Tasty.
A few random items. On display is the tiny nugget of lead that John Campbell Miles discovered here in 1923. He quickly pegged a claim, and Mount Isa Mines has grown from that. Today's underground mine is winding down. It is 3 km long by 1km wide by 3 km deep with about 60 levels of tunnelling. There is an open cut section now that will keep the place going for a while. There are other mines opening in the region, as there is no shortage of ore. The tour mine is called Hard Times, which was the name of JC Miles's horse! And a big event today in town... Hungry Jacks opened -- tonight I saw cars queued for over a block waiting to enter the drive through.
No cameras were allowed in the mine, so today's pictorial offering is a little slim. You can see the photos here.
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