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Published: September 7th 2023
MARY KATHLEEN MINE
The mine is about 8klm from the town itselfHad 4 nights in Mt Isa as we had never been here before, we had heard a lot of negative comments about the place but thought hey.... we want to check it out! Fortunately our caravan park was little out of town so it seemed not to be as vulnerable as some the ones closer into town.... mind you they had a few incidents in the weeks before we arrived but we didn't have any trouble at all. There is no doubt Mt Isa has a very high crime rate of theft etc and then the next major one is drugs....I guess they don't call it the youth crime capital of Australia for nothing. Mt Isa itself is a very raw and grungy town I would describe it as..... has everything there you need so we stocked up on groceries, meat and other necessities, washed everything and started afresh again. Also a mate from Barnawartha rang the night before we arrived and said he was up at Karumba and would come down on the Tuesday for a couple of nights to catch up.... which was quite special and so great to catch up with Jim.... we had lots of yarns, beers
MT ISA
The van park was a little out of town, nice spot! and meals together before Jim headed west the way we had just come over, finally ending in Darwin for him. Jim is ex army and he was interested to see how Mt Isa had changed since he was there 30-35 years ago. We did a little tour of Mt Isa which has a long history but its all about mining, a John Campbell Miles discovered silver-lead ore here in 1923 and it has gone from there with Mount Isa Mines developing the mines and is Australia's main source of silver, lead, zinc and copper. When World War II hit it became a very important depot for the transport of supplies to the Northern Territory.The mines are just ginormous with a shaft that goes down 1900metres and there are 1600 klms of roads down there making it one of the largest network of underground tunnels...hard to imagine! Our next stop is Mary Kathleen abandoned town about 65klms west of Mt Isa, it is one of the most fascinating places and a fave free camp site we have visited. Mary Kathleen is an old mining town from where they mined uranium until 1982. The town itself is part of Rosebud Station, and
MT ISA
John is ready for any trouble as campers we are very lucky to be able to stay here for free. As the sun goes down every night we have all the Angus cattle coming around to graze. Its a top spot! 8klms from the town is the old mine...we were blown away that you could still get up close...like park the car and walk under 300 metres to see it all...it was something else....the very bright blue water took our breath away...maybe the uranium still present who knows! Back in Mary Kathleen John's Explor Oz mapping system showed exactly where every building was in town, school, swimming pool, bank, post office etc but not a lot remains of the old town except for a lot of small concrete slabs which were carports as all the houses were up on stumps! There are still some bitumen roads and we did several walks around the whole town and could make out where things were back in the day. There is not much left but the plaque about the opening by Sir Robert Menzies is here. It cost something like 19million to decommission the town and mine. We loved camping here for three nights and met a few people,
MT ISA
Loved our time together with Jim it is a very popular place to camp but no one is on top of each other. There is even a visitor book on top of a small memorial all wrapped up in lots of plastic bags. The memorial is for a couple who died in early 2000's and I have contacted their daughter who was born in Mt Isa whilst the family lived here in Mary Kathleen, she married her childhood sweetheart who she met in Grade 2 at Mary Kathleen, about our age! Two nights at Corella Dam which is just a few klm up the road from Mary Kathleen a great spot on the edge of the dam with lots of other campers and plenty of spots all around the dam and the river. Corella Dam was built to feed water to Mary Kathleen Mine and township in 1956-1957. Just 12klms down the road is our next stop for a couple of days Clem Walton Park or Corella Dam, a top spot with plenty of camp spots right on the lake. Lots of birds and to our dismay crocs too! We took a long walk around the dam towards the wall, nearly rock climbing to get there
MT ISA
Murals done on the former Ergon Building and nearing the end John was walking ahead and disturbed two baby crocs sunning on the edge of the lake, he said its OK they are only freshies....NO WAY I am taking another step and we took off back to where we came from! I am sure Mummy would have been watching from somewhere! I couldn't believe there were crocs here but what would I know, a guy who was in his little inflatable said there were big crocs over the other side of the lake...not walking there to find out! Apart from that little episode we just loved the spot so much and would definitely go there again if heading that way. We were talking to a Polish couple from Melbourne and they had been there three weeks.....don't know so much about that but you can stay as long as you like. As we are heading to Cloncurry for Beat the Heat Festival and race meeting we had a day to fill in so headed out to the Quamby Pub about 50kms north of Cloncurry on the Burke Development Road, what a little ripper this, a lovely couple Karen and Nigel bought it about two years ago after it
MT ISA
lovely mural depicting the town had no been uninhabited for ten years, so virtually starting from scratch they have renovated/rebuilt it completely into the quirky, cute place it is today. $10 a night to camp out back with hot showers, toilets and swimming pool to use and great pub meals and cold beers. Looks like they are doing really well, have contractors staying in their rooms and doing all meals and then they have a lot of caravaners now too, only been open since April this year. We had a great night at the pub meeting someone that knows a few friends of ours, there is always someone on the road we know. Next stop Cloncurry for the Beat the Heat Festival.
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