Day 43 Mt Isa to Normanton

After all of the excitement yesterday, I wasn't sure how today could possibly stack up and be as exciting.  But here goes.

The goal was to get Lisa to the emergency room as early as possible for X-Rays, and try and avoid lengthy waits.  A quick brekky and pack up saw us on the way to Mt Isa Base Hospital at 0815.  I dropped Lisa off and took the kids to the Outback at Isa display to wait out the emergency room boredom.

Outback at Isa is split into two parts...one is sort of a cultural and historical museum of the town and mine itself, and the other is the Riversleigh Fossil Centre.  I will approach the two halves separately.

Mt Isa was founded at the turn of the century (1923) by John Campbell Miles when it was noticed that the rock on the side of the hill had a high lead content.  Many men came to establish the mine, and a town sprung up on the other bank of the Leichardt River. 

The town itself was split into townside...average people in retail, and in support of the mine, and mineside which constituted the mining company and its workers.  Not much has changed in 100 years except that the mine has expanded, and switched from Lead to Copper in a miraculous feat of engineering in WWII without completely changing their infrastructure, and to this day is one of the largest operating mines in the world with over 100km of shaft below ground to a depth of over 3km deep.  They are still extracting Lead, Zinc, Copper and Silver from the mining processes and are refining on site. 

The town / city reminds me a lot of Kalgoorlie in that it is a town that is there because of the mine, not a mine that is operational because of the town.  We also learnt that the Mt Isa Rodeo has the third biggest purse in the world only behind Calgary and Houston.  I wasn't game to ask about the colour of skirt that goes with that, but y'know I'm from the West and we don't dabble in the folly of Rodeo.

The Riversleigh Fossil Centre has information and displays on the fossils found at the Riversleigh World Heritage Fossil Mammal Site.  This site is approx. 30km North of Mt Isa, and is an ancient seabed / riverbed which was fed by underground springs with high lime content.  This meant that any bones or animals left in its waters were very well preserved, and there have been many discoveries of animals from 20,000 years to an estimated 20 million years old. 



Some of these fossils include incredible creatures such as giant carnivorous kangaroos and the hippo sized wombat.  Not only have bones and teeth been preserved, but in many cases there has also been muscle and brain remnants preserved which have assisted in the reconstruction of the animals with some detail.  This was a very interesting stop, and the kids loved the experience. 

It was whilst here that Lisa was finally done with the hospital and after collecting her, I dropped her and the kids off at the Mt Isa Outback Centre whilst I returned to fetch the caravan from the park.  We must have been flustered this morning, because I found the van door keys proudly sitting in the lock when I returned. DOH!  Everything was in order though, so I finished our pack up and returned to pick everyone up on 1130.  So much for an early start today.


We were on our way, and stopped for a very tasty bakery lunch in Cloncurry, and were to continue North for Normanton or as close as we could get with only one driver.  The drive to Cloncurry reminded me of the Pilbara with striking hilly formations and sharp red rock ridges protruding over spinifex and low shrubs.  The drive to Normanton however steadied into an endless yellowy grassland.  I think the brochure refers to this country as "Spectacular Savannah Grassland".  Better described as "Boring as Bat Shit with Bloody Big Bovines".

We did make it to Normanton though with some day light and a fraction of parental sanity left.  Bourbon is gonna taste good tonight along with that marinated pork steak that I have been saving.  We only have one big drive left for a long time (Until the Nullarbor), so looking forward to knocking that over tomorrow and easing into a month or so of short hops and long stays. 


It appears that because of school holidays and the vast number of grey nomads travelling that there is no room at any inn anywhere.  Hence our campsite tonight is on the front verge of the park.  I might add though that these nomads are insane.  They go to bed at 6pm after their dinner at 4pm, get up at 4am and drive for 2 hours to ensure that they get a good campsite at their next stop...I need a floppy hat, and another bourbon.