In and Around Mt Isa Part 2

Hi,
Today we take a look at a couple of tourist attractions in Mt Isa. The first place we visit is called Outback @ Isa, which incorporates the Hard Times Mine, Isa Experience, Riversleigh Fossil Centre and The Outback Park.

This building houses the museum the Isa Experience.

 

 

The Hard Times Mine is a purpose built mine purely for tourism. Mt Isa Mines used to take underground mine tours at their working mine until there was an accident with a tourist and they stopped the tours. Mt Isa Mines decided on a purpose built underground experience and donated the manpower and machinery to build Hard Times Mine, in conjunction with the Queensland government supplying almost $7 million for the whole complex as well as Mt Isa City Council driving it forward also. Surface tours of Xstrata's mine are still available and leave from Outback @ Isa.



The Hard Times Mine A Frame was donated by MIM.

Outback @ Isa was opened in 2003 and Hard Times in 2004. The mine comprises 1.2 km of tunnels 4 metres wide by 4 metres high and is set up like a real working mine.The first thing you do is meet your tour guide, ours was "Brownie", he takes you to the store and issues you with overalls, hard hat, belt and boots and when you are kitted up you move out through the yard above which is scattered with old mining equipment of days passed and into the tin shed above. Here you are issued with a very heavy battery pack, which you attach to your belt and a miners light for your hard hat. Then you move under the A Frame and enter a cage called an Alimak cage for the trip into the mine, about 25 metres down.


All the guides are current miners or retired miners and Brownie is a retired MIM miner. Once you are in the mine you walk a circuit and he explains the different ways they used to mine over 70 odd years. They have very early mining equipment right up to modern day and it is all in working order which he demonstrates, there is one drill setup that you can operate yourself to get a feel for how hard it was to work in there. He also operates a 50 tonne underground loader and the noise from the drill and the machinery is deafening, we only had to listen to it for about a minute or two but those guys endured it shift after shift with no hearing protection in those days. Near the end of the tour you are taken to the miners crib room to have a cuppa and a biscuit while Brownie lets of a blast, it's a real life simulation of the real thing and gives you an idea of what it would sound like underground when it goes off. We then proceeded back to the surface in the back of a Toyota Ute, the whole tour takes about 2.5 hours, it was a great experience the only downside was that you are not allowed to take photo's down there.

This is one of the original pneumatic drills used in Mt Isa.

Next on the agenda is the Isa Experience, a mining museum in the complex. This is very interesting also and includes exhibits, interactive displays and a theatrette.

Some primitive mining equipment.

Man in a cage.

 Mine Ambulance, I think I'll walk.

Couldn't believe the size of this camp oven.

Outback Park.
The Outback Park is based around the above water feature which is modelled on the Tufa Falls in Lawn Hill National Park and is a glimpse of the flora found around the north west.

A great spot on a hot day.

 The lagoon is home to quite a few species of fish.

Joanne getting a bit of shade.

The Riversleigh Fossil Centre in the complex displays many of the strange animals that lived in the Riversleigh area some 15 to 25 million years ago.

This huge lizard is a distant cousin to our Goanna.

A Rain forest Koala.

This ancient Platypus had teeth.

Large Possum.

Ringtailed Possum.

This wombat type marsupial chased the Kangaroo descendant in the following photo down this cave.

And broke his leg.

This strange animal is called a Thingodonta. They were so bizarre that reserchers gave them that name.

The largest marsupial known in the world.

A scene depicting how they uncover fossils.

Hope that lizard is friendly.
That's the end of our Outback @ Isa visit and it was a very good experience and well worth the money. Next we head out to Lake Moondarra for a look around.