Now that is how a mine tour should be run! A ‘hands on’ type experience, by an old fella with character who has worked in the mines for years! We’ve only just finished, as we did the Wed evening 5:30pm pizza and beer tour, which goes for a few hours.

It isn’t in the actual working Mt Isa mine, which literally overshadows the town of Mt Isa, but rather in a nearby mine set-up just for tourism purposes. However they have done it well, setting it up as per a real mine, and installed some of the usual equipment (past and current). They make us get dressed up in safety overalls, gum boots, and hard hats with head lights. The bloke was good and got the three kids on the tour active and involved – having to do stuff for him like have a go at the air operated drilling rams etc. Tough life being a miner in the old days – hot, hard, dirty and dangerous. Give me the old underground gem mines over these underground lead/copper mines anyday!

Boys in front of entry cage. With tour guide and other boy on the tour. Photo of a photo they gave to us.

Town of Mt Isa

overshadowed by the mine

looking more east

Typical rocky hills with minimal vegetation. Don’t know I’d feel safe living in that house!

Unfortunately had to leave the camera in the locker early on in the tour. The real mine has hundreds of kilometres of tunnels, which go down over 1.2km deep. The mining process is still a smaller more manual process than I had anticipated.

We have to be up on time tomorrow morning, as we are off on a tour of the Bureau of Meteorology at 8:30am!