Mount Isa

Knowing that the train did not leave until lunch time, I decided to walk around and explore Mt Isa. It's better to avoid the heat and do the walk in the early morning so once I was awake, I got dressed and headed out.

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Where the buses arrived and departed from. It was in the center of town at a transit / information center. Greyhound seems to be the only operator in the outback.

 I walked past a curious outdoor museum that showed the heavy equipment used in the underground mines.

 The museum is actually a fake mine designed to give visitors the experience of being down a mine but with no minerals being extracted.

 I had been advised to walk up this hill to get views of the city.

 So I reached the top and took photos in all directions. This is a large sporting complex that includes a racecourse.

 Mount Isa Mines lies just to the west of the downtown city and dominates the western view with its tall chimneys. The company dominates the city as well.

 Suburbia.

 Mango tree.

 Arilla Paper is a project for aboriginal women to make paper.

 Down town Mt Isa.

 This appears to be a man's town. From what I saw, the usual abundance of shops for women which you would find in other cities of this size was missing. Not too many restaurants either but a lot of fast food. This is a mining city.

 No doubt a lot of the miners belong to the AWU. It's not too far from the mine.

 A river separates the down town shops from the mine.

 MIM up close.

 The train station, fairly close to the entry to the mine.

As I walked back from the station over the river I noticed that there were a lot of dead fish floating in the water. I have no clue why this happened.

 Hit kangaroo.

 Hit cow.

Bull bar protection. It is extremely dangerous to drive after dark in the outback areas unless you have a lot of protection from hitting large animals.

Mt Isa is somewhat of an acquired taste. You either love it or leave it. In the very short time that I was there I couldn't feel any magic and so I was glad to get onto the train.