Mary Kathleen Mine and Township

Today, Wednesday 24 Sept we went to visit the above mine which was closed down in 1984.  The mine commenced in 1955 and was mined for only about 30 years due to the oversupply of uranium on the world market it was closed down and the township was disbanded.  The township was auctioned off.    Mary Kathleen  is 56km o the Barkly Highway heading back to Cloncurry.  The township was once a thriving community of 1000 people.  Today ...  the pictures now tell the story

Our car in one of the carports,  see the another behind the car in the distance.

Water feature that was in the town centre

The main shopping centre - all that is left is the concrete slab

Shopping centre again

Quiet house lots

 Someone forget to take these floor tiles.

Silent footpath to nowhere.

This was left on one of the concrete carport, obviously this family lived here for a period of time.

Concrete structure - may have been used for loading silos.

The Mary Kathleen Mine,  the water in the middle is a vivid blue but cannot be used as it is contaminated.

Morena & Neil with mine behind us

Our car on top of the "slag" hill - note how dry the vegetation in the background is.

 We had to put the car in four wheel drive, note the corrugations.

Some of the rock formations on the way

Road conditions

 

A most enjoyable day.

 

To think that over 1000 people lived here and now there is nothing but damaged roads, concrete slabs for carports and a shopping centre, no laughter or voices just absolute quiet.

 

 

International viewers of my blog ....

 

 

Those from America, Poland, France and Germany - please feel free to leave a comment or ask questions which I will endeavour to reply.

 

Please note that some of the pictures are taken from the passenger side through the windscreen,  even though we clean the window each morning, the dust and insects collected on the way make it impossible to have  perfectly clean glass all day.

 

Would love to hear from you.

 

Morena and Neil

 

 

Mount Isa

Arrived Friday and setup camp.    Arranged for the windscreen to be replaced on Monday and was promised by the owner of Bushman Fridge that the AC adapter will be sent (free of charge)

Mount Isa has a population of about 22,000, mining began here in the 1930's.  Lead, zinc, copper and silver are mined here.  The highways in and out of the town were built by the Americans during WWII, and the rail line was built by the Afghans and their camels.  The mines were built by the influx of Scots, Irish, Finns and Hungarians.  Mount Isa even has an Irish Pub - the biggest in the world.

Neil pointing out to Lake Moondara,  as the area has been in draught for about 4 years the dam is only 25% capacity.  This dam is used for recreational activities as well as being the main water supply for the mine and town.

Read below  - DID YOU KNOW THAT WATERS FROM THE CAPE AND GULF FLOW WEST WARD?

This is the view on the other side of the dam - desert.

Town view - all so dry and dusty

View of Mount Isa mine and town from city lookout.

Most of the houses in Mount Isa are single story, no garden - due to climate.  Every house has air conditioning.

Which way home?  Melbourne

View of mine from lookout

These few houses are the only double storey houses I could see

Let's go back to the Cape!

Mine in distance, approaching Mount Isa.

 

 

On our way to Mount Isa

We left Normanton on Thursday (18-9)  and drove the Bourke Development Road and stopped over night at Cloncurry.  We were passed by 3 trailer road trains, see below.

 We are now in the Barkly Tableland - this area has been in draught - note how dry it is,  no wonder the cattle we have seen are so thin.

This road train had cattle,  it was stopped at the Burke & Wills Road House (we had a quick lunch here)

Burke & Will R.H.

This monument sites one of the rest places for Burke & Wills

Original fireplace!  (not really)

Note how dry it is and the rocky mountains

We stayed in a self contained cabin in Cloncurry and this is where our AC adapter on the car fridge blew up!

The Car

 

Note the angle of the carrier - bent on the OTT

 

 On the sealed road to Karumba a very small stone chipped the front window and now we have a growing crack!

 

 

Last night in Cloncurry the AC adapter of the car fridge died!