Wednesday 23rd June 2022
So after arriving at Mount Isa we have spent 8 nights is a motel room.
We have had our caravan in storage at one of the van parks.
On Tuesday afternoon we finally received the part we needed.
This morning we put the new battery in and we connected the new system. We saw power and what a relief that was!!
As the fridge cools we have 1 more night in the motel room.
Mount Isa
Lake Moondarra
We have visited Lake Moondarra. Lake Moondarra is an artificial lake on the Leichhardt River in Queensland, Australia, 16 km downstream from the town of Mount Isa. It provides water to the city and the adjacent Mount Isa Mines mining lease.
We played frisbee and ran around at the Peacock Park.
Playgrounds
You guessed it. We visited the playground almost everyday.
About Mount Isa
Mount Isa Mines (MIM) is one of the most productive single mines in world history, based on combined production of lead, silver, copper and zinc.
Aboriginal History
The land around the present day city of Mount Isa was home to the Kalkadoon aboriginal tribe.
The Kalkadoon tribe led a subsistence lifestyle on this land that the white settlers looked at as nothing but poor grazing land, with the odd mineral deposit.
As settlers and prospectors pressed further into their lands the Kalkadoon tribe members set out on one of Australia’s most successful guerrilla wars in a fight for their lands. Their success continued until at Battle Mountain in 1884, the tribe attacked a fortified position in large numbers and suffered terrible losses. The weakened state of the tribe made their land more vulnerable to the settlers and soon much of the land was lost.
Armed patrols chasing the surviving tribe members and poor grazing lands for the settlers made times hard in the area over the following decades.
Mining
A 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.
When Miles inspected the yellow-black rocks in a nearby outcrop, they reminded him of the ore found in the Broken Hill mine that he had once worked at.
Upon inspection these rocks were weighty and heavily mineralised. A sample sent away to the assayer in Cloncurry confirmed their value. Miles and four farmers staked out the first claims in the area.
Next
Tomorrow we spend one more day and night in Mt Isa, but in the caravan. We are testing the battery system without power, before leaving.
We are making our way, on Friday, to Camooweal. A small town on the border of QLD and NT.
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