We’re off on an entirely new adventure – to north west Queensland! A month ago, I tagged along with hubby on a field trip to the area, primarily to visit Riversleigh fossil site. But more on Riversleigh later – we have to get there first!

The gateway to the region is Mount Isa. Now, in NSW, most mines/smelters, particularly in large towns, are usually some ways out of it. I’m thinking of Port Kembla in relation to Wollongong, or the BHP complex in Newcastle. Mount Isa however, is a place where the mine and the smelter are smack bang in town.

We had a bird’s eye view of the open cut copper/lead/zinc mine on our approach to the airport. Now, this was our approach from the airport into town.

The copper smelter (the biggest smoke stack) was particularly big, but so was everything in the complex.

Mount Isa itself is a big outback town – almost 19,0000 – with good facilities. I was also impressed that it was relatively clean and orderly. I guess having the mine as an employer helped. It dominated everything, even the skyline at night.