Cloncurry and Mount Isa

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Well, the Undara Experience tour operator got back to me, declining to provide a copy of their annual financial report and unable to give any good reasons for their extortionate ticket prices. We have since heard, from travelers and information centres alike, that it’s much more worthwhile to visit the nearby Cobbold Gorge instead. Sadly we bypassed that this time, but if you’re a traveler out there that could be the way to go!



After leaving Karumba, we had the laziest day ever :-) Having decided that it was too far to drive the whole way to our next destination, Cloncurry, we stopped at a roadside rest area where we also planned to spend the night. There really wasn’t anything to do or anywhere to go, so we just spent the afternoon and evening playing video games and watching movies. Very therapeutic.



We arrived in Cloncurry the following morning and almost fell over ourselves in excitement. Despite a population of just 3500, it seemed HUGE to us and there was even a supermarket!!! Being a bit low on food (and I had run out of raisins which is never good!) we had the best fun grocery shopping to our hearts’ content.



Cloncurry has an interesting history. In the 19^th century, it was the largest producer of copper in the British Empire. It’s also the birthplace of both Qantas and the Royal Flying Doctors Service. We visited the John Flynn Pace museum which pays tribute to Rev John Flynn who founded the Aerial Medial Service which later became the RFDS. As it turns out, John Flynn is the man featured on the red AU$20 note! We also checked out the Mary Kathleen Memorial Park and outdoor museum, featuring all sorts of machinery used in bygone days. Also displayed is the curious rail ambulance that was used in and around Cloncurry 1954 to 1971. Once a standard road ambulance, it was converted to travel on rails and even had a jacking point in the centre to enable the driver to turn it around 180^o.



Apparently Australia’s highest recorded temperature was recorded in Cloncurry in 1889: 53.1^oC in the shade! Thankfully the weather was actually quite nice and breezy while we were there. One thing that we are struggling with, though, is the quality of the water in the area. It’s very hard and both of us have lizard skin these days! I’m still battling some weird histamine reaction caused by either the water in the shower or the water in the pool.



Our next stop was the mining town of Mount Isa, locally referred to as ‘The Isa’. With a population of 22000, it is a lot larger that Cloncurry and almost resembles a city. Surrounded by hundreds of miles of nothing, Mount Isa is without a doubt a wealthy town that caters to the workers and the travelers. Surprisingly, everything is closed at the weekends though. The locals are desperately in favour of Sunday trading, but the local council won’t have any of it.



The Leichhardt River separates mine-side from town-side but you can’t miss the smelting chimneys wherever you are. Mount Isa is also the ‘rodeo capital of Australia’ – if you’re here during the second week in August, you can saddle up for the country’s largest rodeo.



At the risk of sounding a bit snobby, it must be said that Mount Isa isn’t what you’d call classy. It’s more down-to-earth, unfussy and informal. Still not really having celebrated our anniversary, we decided to go to the Red Earth Boutique Hotel for cocktails. The Lonely Planet rates this one very highly and says it’s by far the best hotel in town. By Mount Isa standards it really is quite nice, but I was kind of expecting it to be glamorous like the biggies in London or Melbourne :-) Happily cocktail-ed, we spent the evening up at the Mount Isa Lookout. With the town all lit up, it was very different view from the one we had enjoyed earlier on in the day.



As earthy and remote as Mount Isa is, it’s also very multicultural. 50+ different nationalities are presented here which isn’t really something you would expect from an outback mining town. I guess people will come to where there’s good money to be earned. We chatted to a local who told us that an apprentice labourer will easily make AU$95k a year. When he heard about Dean’s engineering background, he had no doubt that he would be able to start work the next day. There is also great demand for female truck drivers in the mines. Funnily enough, I had considered that already, but it seems like too much of an effort to get qualified etc. Still, we could always work hard in the mines for a few years and then continue traveling!



We would highly recommend Outback @ Isa to anyone visiting the area. It’s actually the tourist information centre but it also has a number of excellent experiences on offer. There is the Isa Experience (a museum dedicated to the history and heritage of the area), the Riversleigh Fossil Centre (a display centre for the findings of the nearby Riversleigh World Heritage Area where 15-25 million year old fossils have been found) and the Hard Times Mine. Named after the horse ‘Hard Times’ that belonged to the man that found the mine, it is now used only for training and tourism. During our underground tour (clad in sexy orange overalls and boots!) we learnt all about mining methods, machinery and various funny anecdotes from our guide. A bit of trivia: they call their underground tea rooms ‘crib rooms’ because years ago they served as a place to play cribbage.



The actual working mines in Mount Isa are unbelievably huge. We saw a model of the Black Rock mine and I seriously wouldn’t want to be working on one of the lower levels. The Black Star mine is even bigger, its tunnels apparently adding up to a whopping 2500km!


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