Day 56: We are inducted into the mining fraternity (27/07/12)

The car had to go in to have its tensioner pulley exchanged. That left us carless in Mount Isa, but as we were full of beans we found it easy to walk into town for our 9 o’clock appointment.

This was at Outback@Isa for our underground mining tour. We were greeted by an old retired miner called Bill who told us we would be wearing overalls, belt, helmet and torch. The overalls were disposables and bright orange, presumably so that we could easily be found if we decided to hide up a side shaft. The mine we were going into did not contain any minerals (well, Mr or Ms Smartbottom, no commercially valuable minerals). It had been dug, at a depth of about 20 metres, right under downtown Mt Isa, specifically for the tourist trade. Old machinery had been rescued from the real mine, and set up for display or demonstration in the tourist one. Our guide described the ins and outs of mining in the sixties and seventies. It involved a lot of sweat and danger and dirt. However, he also described the bonds of mateship which helped people to face the daily dangers.

Have you ever seen a better-looking pair of miners? (What we are after here is flattery, not honesty!)

We could not take our cameras down, but had our picture taken. Pity, because I would love to have  shared a picture of Joke with you. We were asked to have a go at drilling a hole in the mine face, so Joke volunteered, and she looked absolutely professional (and adorable) as she wrestled the 100+ kg drill into the hole.

The entry also included 2 museums on the property, one about mining in Mt Isa and the other on the fossil finds at Riversleigh up along the Queensland/NT border.

The laboratory where fossils are sorted, identified and treated.

Fossil-hunters.

Both were interesting in their way, although the fossil museum was a bit disorganised and messy and obviously needed some attention.

The car could be picked up when we came out of Outback@Isa. Fortunately, only a bearing needed to be replaced, so the job was a little cheaper than expected.