The Campbell Odyssey: Day 146

02/09/11

Went to the Information Centre this morning and purchased a ticket to see the Experience Isa display as well as the Riverslea Fossil display.

First the Riverslea was quite unique. Riverslea is a working cattle station 200km north of Mt Isa. Apparently there have been a great variety of fossils uncovered in the area and this display builds up a picture of the various changes in the environment of the area. Starts with the Gondwana rain forest with dinosaurs, then woodland forest, and finishes with open grasslands full of giant marsupials,

Had a kids play area with sand - Sean just loves sand so he was digging away like mad.

Then into the Isa Experience exhibition - well put together information and displays about how Mt Isa came to be and the story so far. Some mining equipment on display including this large pneumatic drill.

Then this model representing the mine today which is 5km long, 3km wide and nearly 2km deep. The ore deposits of copper, lead, zinc and silver are managed as separate mines each with their own crews. Can only imagine that it must be a very busy place down there.

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The display starts with the prospector who first found some ore bearing rock when he stopped here on his way west prospecting in 1923 - good name anyway. Apparently he had some shares in the original company but sold them cheap during the depression and kept on going looking for his mother load but never found it.

Mount Isa Mines began operating in 1924 and during the 1930s a shanty town sprung up around the mine - one display depicts a shack made from whatever was available including kero tins, dynamite boxes and calico bags.

Later during the 1950s a couple of miners did some prospecting of their own looking for uranium. On one of their trips they broke down in this old beast and while repairing stumbled across the Mary Katherine uranium deposit.