Jun 05

Min Min Mt Isa

by in Places we've been, Things we've seen

Winton to the Hilton Hotel for a beer. The Hiltons standards have been maintained but the beer at the Middleton Hotel opposite was certainly colder….

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and the welcoming committee was friendly.

At least this stop provided some light relief from a long monotonous drive through countryside that hardly varies from bland…

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and that’s just the first 120km.

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and then there was the next 100km to the Hamilton Hotel….

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where we overnighted with two other vans and next day moved on…

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and then there was a sign.

But, we did reach Boulia the home of the Min Min lights. Now, like so many other towns before this the story surrounding the town rests on a minor incident, one that in this case has no explanation. It’s told that unexplained lights have followed people or come at them across the plains or indeed collided with them to no ill effect. The town has set up a series of dioramas in a theatre where one moves from room to room listening to plastic dummies telling of their various encounters with the Min Min lights It is laughable but it is also interesting…

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and, no, the last two are not all dummies just interested participants.

A  reasonable museum, an old house and a fabulous fossil collection rounded out the affairs of Boulia…

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On to Dajarra, towards Mt Isa. Free camped at Dajarra to the sounds of indigenous frivolity through to the early hours of the next day. Coupled with the sounds of frequently fighting dogs seemingly under the truck, sleep was elusive. But we survived to tell the tale.

The scenery did take a turn for the better on the final run into Mt Isa but ‘rugged’ would be an understatement….

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although it started out boringly similar….

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Rocks, bikes and power stations at least provided some relief from the earlier boredom. All up a 660 km detour to appreciate the countryside and the Min Min lights. There’s not much out here.

Mt Isa was on my “bucket list”, particularly since not making it this far in 2003. At the very least a mine tour was to be the order of the day.

Well, you “joe public” can’t be trusted down a real mine cos you might kill yourself or blow us up or some such so we’ve built you an imitation mine. But don’t worry we’ll provide a real Miner to take you on a tour, even though he retired some years ago. Oh, and you can’t take photos. And it was about $40 each but you do get a set of orange paper overalls to take home to remember us by.

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All of these photos were taken outside the facility and it was so hot I forgot to take a ‘selfie’ of the orange overalls.

It was nonetheless interesting and did provide a very realistic (presumably) picture of mine working conditions. The old miner was also quite a character and proved to be most entertaining. These days you can’t even get close to the real mine which was a bit disappointing.

Mt Isa’s history is relatively recent – just 1923 when Cameron John Miles found ore and subsequently lodged a claim which in turn led to the formation of Mount Isa Mines Ltd. A story  of boom and bust until new American ownership of the thirties brought the business into profit by 1937. Miners strikes in the 60’s also contributed to further ownership changes but the mine apparently now remains profitable. It is a huge complex and when you consider that the bulk of mining is still conducted by tunnel blasting and boring it appears a high cost operation. Lead and copper are the principle extracts.

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Not really a lot to see in Mt Isa. The local dam proved to be something of an attractive piece of landscape though….

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Probably more photos than narrative, but I don’t have much to say. We’re surprised at how little there is to see and for that matter to do out here, but it has so far proven very interesting to see where and how other people live. It is still quite hot – most days have been well into the 30’s and there hasn’t been a sniff of rain in all the time we’ve been away. We’re told that the temperatures in summer can reach 50 and indeed one of the towns we’ve been through holds the Australian record of over 53 degrees (I can’t remember which one). It is dry – drought is all around us and cattle stocks are down.

We are ahead of schedule so time permits a detour to the Gulf. Next stop will be Normanton for a day trip on the Gulflander and then Korumba for a stoush with a barramundi and perhaps a croc or two.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 Responses to “Min Min Mt Isa”

  1. From g@z:

    Got a branch in Mt Isa, now that you are a PC support guru I’ll get you to do a few jobs there for me 😉

    Regards,
    g@z.

    Posted on 5 June 2014 at 10:08 pm #
  2. From John Fowler:

    It does sound and look rather boring getting to Mt Isa, but I guess that is what much of the ‘outback’ is like.
    I rather thought that there would be a fair bit of ‘entertainment’ or ‘touristy’ type stuff there in Mt Isa, so that would have been disappointing to have so little to do there.
    At least you have now been there!
    Cheers
    John

    Posted on 12 June 2014 at 11:35 am #

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