Driving towards Mount Isa from Boulia was lovely lots of wild flowers and amazing red rocks everywhere. You get to the outskirts of Mount Isa and you see three massive chimneys and the mines are right in front of you. They are massive. They mine lead, copper and some zinc.

We stayed with Isla Caskie a friends daughter and her partner Will in Happy Valley. A very nice area of the town near the massive Irish Club, which is apparently the biggest Irish Club in the southern hemisphere. Will works in the mine so it was very interesting to see his videos and hear about his work day. They work 12 hour shifts 7 days on and 7 days off.  During that 12 hour shift they have one one hour break which they spend underground in the ‘Crib’ room. Apparently it is called the Crib room because years ago Cornish miners used to play cribbage on their breaks. Will is what they call a ‘service man’. He works on level 20 (yes there are 20 levels) putting in fans. So that when the miners come to mine that tunnel they have adequate ventilation. In the summer the temperature can be 48C with very high humidity. He showed us a video of a Jumbo which is a machine about 5m wide that drills into the rock and puts up metal mesh and secures it so that it is safer for the miners. The machinery looked incredibly complicated. I could not ever do that job working nearly 2km underground. He told us that the Landcruisers which are very tough trucks last only 12 months in the mines. The tunnels are massive and they take 30 mins to drive down.

Isla works as a speech therapist in Mount Isa and is part of a mobile health team that service these remote towns. She travels all the way down to Bedourie. Again very interesting to hear about the lack of health care available in this area of Queensland and quite sad as the aborigines have a whole plethora of health issues.

We spent the first afternoon looking around the town, it’s easy to know where you are because you can always see the three massive chimneys that dominate the skyline but the actual centre is really quite compact. It was great to go into a decent supermarket and stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables. The choice has been very limited since Charleville. Walked to the mine to see if we could see the trains leaving fully loaded with the mined lead and copper but no luck. Next to the mine is the creek of the Leichhardt River, there was not much water running but that is where some of the aborigines hang out to drink. There were quite a few down there.
We heard a lot of stories from other travellers staying in the caravan parks (which are by the creek) and they had very disturbed nights with lots of shouting etc. but we had none of that in Happy Valley. Simon went to the bottle shop to buy some wine and he is now drinking boxed wine as bottles of wine in the caravan do not travel well. He had to had over his licence and went into a log book as they keep track of how much you buy! He wouldn’t survive long out here if they monitored his intake!

We had Isla as our tour guide on Friday afternoon and she showed us the sights. We went to lake Moondarra which is a massive recreational lake which supplies the water to Mount Isa. They have excellent facilities there and even a ski club. 

We visited ‘The Granite’ which is a massive red rocky boulder and when you climb to the top you get fantastic views and sunsets. You do need a 4WD to get there though.

We also went up to the town lookout where you can see the whole mine and town in all its glory.

Hard Times Mine

We signed up to go on the Hard Times mine tour. They used to have tours in the working mine but with Health and safety that was shut down in the 90’s. The mayor of the town at the time had the idea to build one for the tourists so they did, right in the middle of town. There is a Discover Mt Isa centre and the mine is right next to it. It took 3 hours we were dressed in overalls, wellies and hard hats and went down in a caged lift where there was a small open train carriage which was pulled by a machine they call the mule. Our guide showed us each aspect of mining from drilling the hole 2m deep to put in the charge and how it is done in a set pattern. You got to help hold one of the drills to understand the sheer weight and vibrations, they even had simulated explosion noise when we were in the crib room to get a perspective on how loud it is. We saw the ERB room which is the emergency room. It was fascinating and the time flew by and then we were driven out through the tunnels. Worth every penny.

At the Discovery centre they have heaps on, there is a massive display of fossils and when we were on the mine tour they had samples of the copper and lead for us to hold. They were so heavy, some were no bigger than a loaf of bread and I had to use both hands to lift. They also have an underground hospital tour and a local aboriginal guide showing all the bush tucker foods and how they would use them . It really was a great place for a tourist to go to understand the town and what goes on.