I’m walking through a dimly lit tunnel with rickety, dusty hospital beds on either side of me. There’s a waxy looking old-fashioned doll, with those real-looking, bulbous roll-around eyes, wearing a dusty dress and lacy jacket, propped up in a baby’s hospital cot. Glass cabinets from the 1930s are stocked with all sorts of medicinal concoctions that look as though they were left behind when the nurses had to make a run for it.
“What happened to the patients here?” I silently wonder.
Valerie, one of the few women who regularly volunteers at the Mount Isa Underground Hospital and Museum, has no doubt been asked this question many times before. Seeing the curiosity plastered across my face, she looks up from where she’s smoothing down some bedsheets, expertly tucking in sharp corners.
“It wasn’t ever used as a hospital,” she says. “It was built here, on the same grounds as the Mount Isa District Hospital, by off-duty miners in 1942, in case the Japanese attacked.”
Ahh, the same year Darwin was bombed. “Luckily, there was no need to use it,” she continues while giving the creepy doll a shake-down, “but it was well used by the staff at the hospital on their work breaks, as it’s a lovely, cool place to sleep when the temperatures get up to around 50 degrees!”
She laughs. I’m not so sure I’d use the word lovely, but it’s definitely cool. Today it’s 45 degrees outside and I’m still sweating after my short walk down a gently sloping path to get here.
Above ground, visitors can explore the impressive collection of antiques and paraphernalia in the museum, which includes some utterly baffling medical equipment — until you read the well-detailed descriptions provided by the volunteers.
There’s a meticulously handwritten first aid manual, large posters of human anatomy, a real skeleton that was used for educational purposes, old kids’ toys, World War II items and a range of geological exhibits that offer clues as to what drew so many people to this wild place so far west more than 100 years ago.
The rich history of Mount Isa
As with many outback towns and cities across Australia, mining is what attracted men here in their droves. Mount Isa was established after lone prospector John Campbell Miles stumbled upon one of the world’s richest deposits of copper, silver and zinc during his 1923 expedition into the Northern Territory.
It’s well known that Indigenous Australians occupied this land long before Miles arrived. What many people don’t know is that a young Indigenous man named Kabalulumana led Miles to the deposits. An Indigenous hostel in Mount Isa is named after him.
I continue my exploration by checking out an original tent house on the hospital grounds. Once word of Mount Isa’s abundance of copper, lead and silver spread, men descended upon the wild western town, often bringing their families with them.
The tent houses were built so that occupants could withstand the extremely hot outback temperatures and generally unforgiving conditions. They consisted of a narrow, timber-framed building with canvas walls and a canvas roof. Above the canvas roof, and separate from it, was an iron roof supported by a lightweight timber frame. Solid boards or iron sheeting were often used around the base of the house to stop the endless red dust from entering the home.
But long before Miles and the many people who arrived in his wake, the fiercely territorial Kalkadoon people, also known as the Kalkatungu, lived in the region for possibly up to 60,000 years. They were renowned as one of the strongest tribes in Queensland. In fact, their forefather tribe has been described as “the elite of the Aboriginal warriors of Queensland”.
The Kalkadoon are also believed to have been Australia’s first miners, and one Kalkadoon mining quarry is estimated to be more than 6,000 years old. These early miners had an extremely well-organised, factory-like system in which everyone had a specific role.
The mines produced hard, black basalt, which made excellent spearheads and axes. These weren’t just used by the Kalkadoon — they had extensive trading systems spanning hundreds of kilometres around their territory, and their tools were prized by other tribes. Some axes and spearheads created around Mount Isa have been found as far away as southern and Western Australia.
Tragically, in 1884, many Kalkadoon people were massacred at Battle Mountain by settlers and police. The conflict was thought to have been triggered six years earlier, when a group of settlers were killed at a watering hole, leading to an all-out battle against the Indigenous tribes of the region.
Top things to do in Mount Isa
The hospital isn’t the only way to get an underground fix in ‘Isa’, as the locals call her. Down the road at Outback at Isa, you’ll find the Mount Isa Visitor Information Centre, Hard Times Mine Underground Tour, Isa Experience and Outback Park, the Mount Isa Regional Art Gallery, Riversleigh Fossil Centre, Mount Isa Fish Hatchery Project and the Outback Cafe.
The mine tour is a highlight for many visitors, as not only is it incredibly interactive, but you also gain a real grasp of how miners once worked and lived. The tours are run by men who have been miners for most of their lives. Everyone dons high-vis, bright orange mining overalls and sturdy cap lamps, and then descends in a cage to where it all happens.
The guides share riveting stories of their time spent working in the mines as they lead everyone deep into the tunnels, explaining how they were dug out and shaped with machinery such as boom drills. There are moments in the pitch-black darkness, with the earth around us rumbling like a giant’s belly, where you really do feel as though you’re in a working mine.
Above ground in Mount Isa
Back up on top of the Earth, there’s so much to see in Mount Isa, and to get a great understanding of what the city was and what it is now, spend a few hours exploring Outback at Isa.
For those who want to step 30 million years back in time, to when megafauna was developing, the Riversleigh Fossil Centre has arranged its globally celebrated finds in dioramas depicting long-extinct, enormous creatures in their former prehistoric habitats.
If you want to get more hands-on, fossil enthusiast Alan takes guests on tours through the laboratory, showing how specimens are sorted, cleaned and the fossils extracted.
Outback Queensland is famous for its long stretches of red dirt with bright blue, endless skies above, but it’s also the billabongs, lakes, dams and unique waterways that make places like Mount Isa so special. And if you like a spot of fishing or camping, don’t leave town without visiting beautiful, man-made Lake Moondarra.
Originally called Leichhardt Dam, Lake Moondarra was completed in 1958 for Mount Isa Mines and, at the time, was the largest water scheme in Australia financed by private enterprise. It now has many picturesque picnic areas, pontoons, a ski jump and water sports facilities. It’s a major drawcard for birdwatchers, sailors and anglers.
If you’re in the region in late October, you might catch the Lake Moondarra Fishing Classic. The event is hosted by a not-for-profit group that raises money for more barramundi and sooty grunter fingerlings to be stocked in the lake. It’s a perfect example of a great circular economy.
For another perspective on Mount Isa, climb aboard a cruise with Moondarra Cruises and let someone else do the navigating while you take in the scenery. The calm waters of the lake stretch out into the rugged landscape, with red earth, rocky hills and big blue skies creating a spectacular backdrop. Keep your eyes peeled for the abundant birdlife that calls the lake home, particularly around the shoreline and quieter coves.
Rising before sunrise on my last day in Mount Isa, I made my way out to Lake Moondarra in the dark. Driving through the quiet, wide streets of Mount Isa, and then out through acres of wild bushland thriving on mineral-rich red dirt, I could hear nothing but those birds.
I parked in a picnic area and then walked barefoot to the lake’s edge. As the sun came up and spilled its warmth across the water and the vast land, the birdsong rose in tempo until it reached a happy, cawing, cackling, chirruping, bonkers crescendo. They had a lot to talk about. I sat and listened, quietly in awe of just how much life there is — and was — above and beneath Mount Isa.
If you enjoyed reading this story about Mount Isa, you might like our feature on the small Outback Queensland town of Boulia and the mysterious Min Min Light.
Rex flies to Mount Isa and other regional Queensland destinations. Click HERE to book your flights and check out the route map below for more details.
