Mt Isa - Oasis in the Outback

 Sunday 20th

The skyline of Mt Isa is dominated by mining industry and smelter processing. There are many mines in the district, but Glencore owns Mt Isa Mines which operates two of the largest.  Each one concentrates on different ore bodies; copper and zinc-lead-silver. The copper mine is the deepest in Australia with a 1,900m shaft.  The smoke stack towers 155m above. 

There are a number of statues around town paying homage to the men who work down below. These two show the history from early days to contemporary.

The artwork on a water tank at the main city lookout depicts local wildlife including the black shouldered kite and Kalkadoon grasswren. That grasswren is only found in this Mt Isa region. 

After exploring town in the morning, we played 9 holes of golf. The weather has been bright and beautiful today, so it was very pleasant though challenging with plenty of trees but minimal grass cover. There were a number of traps to avoid including being off the very narrow fairways and numerous cow pats. 

On a walk through the caravan park we found it ran down to a creek and it had plenty of wildlife to entertain us including azure kingfisher and blue-billed duck. 

Monday 21st

Randall called by early and sent us off to find an appropriate replacement solar panel. On our 3rd attempt we found a suitable one but it had to be ordered from Townsville so will arrive sometime tomorrow. Meanwhile we spent the afternoon at Mary Kathleen and Corella Dam. Both of these have free camping options but not for us this trip it seems, as we need to be in town. It might happen on the way back. 

As you approach Mary Kathleen, it is the eeriness of the ghost town that first strikes you. This is dispelled somewhat by the many campers who are making the most of the levelled sites. All that remains of the town are the empty slabs where houses once stood and the abandoned town square. It was opened in 1958 and boasted a population of up to 1,000 living less than 10 kilometres from the uranium mine of the same name. The buildings were sold and taken to either Mount Isa or Cloncurry, both less than an hour away, once the mine closed.

A very rough road continues further in, to the old mine pit. The dam that has formed in the bottom is filled with bright blue, stunningly gorgeous, but slightly radioactive contents. Light reflecting off the multi-coloured walls taints it further. We weren’t tempted to swim or fossick in the surrounds. 

Clem Walton Park and Corella Dam was constructed on the Corella River in the late 1950’s to supply water to the township of Mary Kathleen. Once again it was stunning to see so much water in an otherwise dry and rocky landscape but there were so many campers on the banks it was difficult to find an access point to take a photo. This would be our preferred camping spot too. Plenty of campers but it seems you could still find a space of your own. 

Back in town I went up to the town reservoir tanks which is an ideal spot to find the Kalkadoon Grasswren but they were too illusive for me. Instead, I found many other birds to add to the growing list for the trip. Back at the van Eric had discovered further power issues with the gas running out and the AC tripping. The first was easy to sort as we have 2 bottles, hopefully the second is connected to the solar input, but we will see if Randall can suggest anything tomorrow. 

Tuesday 22nd

We spent the morning in town buying supplies for the next few days in the hope that we can move on. We head to Cloncurry, then north into much more remote areas, so fingers crossed we have dealt with all the problems we are going to encounter for this trip. 

We got confirmation the new solar panel had arrived, so Eric collected it and not long after Randall was on the roof installing it. His further advice was to buy a better battery too. Oh, its only money! The good news is it appears our insurance will cover some of the costs incurred. All sorted, we had delicious jaffles for lunch then took a drive out to Lake Moondarah which is another man-made lake in the Leichardt River just out of town which provides water to the city and mines. A birding paradise, we found quite a few new ones and enjoyed the beauty of the expansive water views in this otherwise very dry landscape. No wonder they call it the oasis in the outback.

I expect network connection will be even worse where we are headed and I wont be finding a Macca's either, so your guess is as good as mine when I will next get the chance to post.