Monday 16th July - Mt Isa

The Mount Isa Experience

To encourage people to linger in Mt Isa longer than just one night, the city has built an 'experience' which comprises of a museum about the town's establishment and history, an underground tour in a recreated mine and [the bit that most interested us] a presentation about the Riversleigh fossils.  Turns out the first was OK, the second better than expected and the third a little scanty, I hope there is more at Winton.

Mt Isa mine tour QLD

The mine tour was done with a retired miner who worked in the mines in various jobs for 53 years. He was quite a character and had started in the mine at 16 years old.  Xtrata had provided old mining equipment, quite a bit of which was still working so he could demonstrate.  The tunnels were genuine but no longer used.  It was an entertaining couple of hours and quite a good insight into how hard and risky the work was and to some extent still is.  Nowadays quite a bit of the machinery is robotic but not all.  The mine is very rich and yields lead, zinc, silver and copper almost all of which is exported.

John's new friend, Mt Isa QLD

The fossil exhibition showcases samples and interpretations of the very rich fossil site at Riversleigh, which used to be lush rainforest, not the arid region it is now.  Due to the high limestone content in the water, enormous quantities of bones have been fossilised, including bat bones which is very unusual as these are so tiny and frail.  The fossils found range from 16,000 years ago [these are the mega fauna marsupials mostly], right up to 2O million years ago.  The older fossils included a type of platypus and a giant terrestial crocodile.  We hope to see more of this at Winton.