Day 105, Sunday, 12 July 2009

Mt Isa

We spent most of today at ‘Outback at Isa’ which includes the Isa Expereince Gallery, Riversleigh Fossil Centre and the Hard Times Mine.

The Riversleigh Fossil Centre explains the importance of the Riversleigh fossil deposits within Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park. The area has been listed on the World Heritage List as the fossils show the key stages in the evolution of Australian mammals and because of the quality of the preserved fossils.

The Isa Experience Gallery tells the story of the discovery of silver and lead by John Campbell Miles in 1923 and how this discovery led to the Mt Isa we know today. Mt Isa Mines have two parallel mining operations – copper and zinc-lead-silver. The Enterprise Mine is Australia’s deepest mine at 1.9km deep and is the primary source of copper ore. 

The Hard Times Mine is a purpose built tourist mine with approximately 1.5km of tunnels 20 metres below ‘Outback at Isa’. They dress you up in the miners’ orange overalls, gum boots, helmet and light and take you through the tunnels showing how mining has changed from manual methods to the fully mechanised ways of today. We had not originally intended to do this tour as some years ago we had been in a tourist mine in Kalgoolie but when we found out this tour was for at least 3 hours we thought it would be worth giving it a try.  We quite enjoyed it.

Zoom into the map and use the 'Satellite' layer to see our new location.

 

Mt Isa Mines

Which way to Darwin?

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