MOUNT ISA, QUEENSLAND

'Mount Isa' is a city in North-West Queensland, Australia. It came into existence because the area holds vast mineral deposits. Mount Isa Mines is arguably the most productive single mine in world history – based on combined production of lead, silver, copper and zinc.
With a population nearing 25,000 in the city and 36,000 in the district, Mount Isa is a significant administrative centre for the region. Although situated in an arid area, the artificial Lake Moondarra to the north provides both drinking water and an area for watersports.

Contents

History

Local governance

Education

Culture

Famous People from Mount Isa

Media

Radio

Television

News

Suburbs

Transport

Education

Climate

See also

References

External links

History

The city came into existence soon after 1923 when John Campbell Miles discovered a rich seam of silver-lead the western edge of the Cloncurry field. Copper and zinc are also mined. Copper, lead are smelted on site, with anodes and zinc concentrate being transported 900 km to the city and port of Townsville on the east coast. The lead ingots are transported to a refinery in Britain where the silver is extracted. The mine is the most significant landmark in the area, with the stack from the lead smelter (built 1978), standing 270 m tall, visible from all parts of the town.

Local governance

The Mount Isa City Council administers an area of 42 904 km², and the town of Camooweal, located 188 km to the west, is in fact a 'suburb' of the city. Mount Isa once laid claim to being the largest city in the world by area, with a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records. This is despite the fact that both the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia and the direct-controlled municipality of Chongqing in China are considerably larger.

Education

Mount Isa has two high schools: Spinifex State College and Good Shepherd Catholic College. Spinifex State College has three main campuses – junior (8-10), senior (11-12) and residential (a boarding campus). The residential campus of Spinifex College is unique in the fact that it is the only State-run boarding-type school in Queensland. Mount Isa is also home to School of the Air, a unique way of schooling isolated students.
The city also holds the main campus of the Mount Isa Institute of TAFE offering courses in a multiple range of fields. In addition, James Cook University has a presence, with the Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health in the hospital complex.

Culture

The local theatre group, the Mount Isa Theatrical Society, often holds plays and musicals. Also the Mount Isa Friends of the Theatre holds a musical every two years. Mount Isa also has a string orchestra and a concert band.
Recreation is abundant in Mount Isa with most sports represented in some form. Cricket, rugby, league and tennis are the most common but BMX, shooting, dancing and ten-pin bowling are also present.
Mount Isa also has a cinema complex that contains three air-conditioned cinemas, a skate park/aquatic centre and a multi-purpose sporting complex for basketball and other indoor sports.
The city is also known for its rodeo and Mardi Gras street parade.
In August 2007, Mount Isa made an appearance on Andrew Denton's popular Enough Rope television show as an 'on the road' special.

Famous People from Mount Isa

★ William Barton, Didgeridoo player

★ Simon Black, Australian rules footballer

★ Gerard Denton, cricketer

★ Simmone Jade Mackinnon, actress

★ Deborah Mailman, actress

★ Pat Mackie, union leader (1964/5 dispute)

★ Gene Miles, rugby league player

★ Greg Norman, golfer

★ Scott Prince, rugby league player

★ Pat Rafter, tennis player

★ Carl Webb, rugby league player

★ John White, squash player

★ William Sweetenham, Olympic Swimming Coach. Formerly Australia, Hong Kong and now UK.

★ Douglas Rees Laing, International agricultural scientist

★ Nathan Fien, rugby league player

★ Richard De Chazel, international fashion designer

Media

Radio

★ 4LM 666 (commercial)

★ Hot FM 102.5 (commercial)

★ MOB FM 100.9 (commercial)

★ ABC North-West Queensland 106.5FM

★ Triple J Australia

Television

★ Southern Cross Seven

★ Imparja,

★ SBS,

★ ABC,

★ Austar

News

★ The North West Star - printed daily Mon-Fri

★ The Courier Mail - Mon-Sat

★ Sunday Mail - Sun

Suburbs

For a city of its size, Mount Isa has fifteen residential suburbs and four industrial suburbs. The Leichhardt River divides the city into areas known as "mineside" and "townside"

★ Happy Valley (mineside)

★ Mica Creek (mineside) - includes the power station

★ Healy (townside)

★ Healy Heights (townside) - under construction

★ Townview (townside)

★ Parkside (mineside) - Mount Isa's biggest suburb

★ Mornington (townside)- the 2nd fastest growing suburb in Queensland)

★ The Gap (townside)

★ Mount Isa City (townside) - includes main shopping centres and eateries

★ Miles End (mineside)

★ Menzies (townside) - includes main rodeo arena

★ Pioneer (townside) - includes TAFE campus and ten-pin bowling complex

★ Leichhardt (mineside)

★ Soldiers Hill (mineside)

★ Sunset (townside)

★ Winston (townside)

★ Ryan (townside) - mostly industrial, includes army and SES barracks

★ Kalkadoon (mineside) - includes airport and Kalkadoon Park

★ Lanskey (townside)

★ Spreadborough (townside) - mostly industrial and bushland

Transport

Mount Isa city and surrounds are serviced by a taxi service. Also, a taxi service known as "Isa-Curry" express transports passengers to and from the neighbouring centre of Cloncurry to Mt Isa and back again, usually for shopping and medical requirements. Additionally, many of the city's clubs have courtesy buses to and from their establishments that runs seven days a week and into the early hours of the morning. Greyhound Australia has a depot in Mt Isa, with coach services to and from Townsville, Brisbane and Tennant Creek.
The city is served by QR passenger train The Inlander, which travels overnight to Townsville twice a week in each direction. The train offers twinette, roomette, triple bunk and coach accommodation, and has a club car for movies and food.
Mount Isa Airport has regular daily services to Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns, with other services to many remote Outback communities in western Queensland.

Education

Mount Isa has eight public primary schools and three private primary schools:

★ Happy Valley State School;

★ Healy State School;

★ Townview State School;

★ Barkly State School;

★ Central State School;

★ Sunset State School;

★ Mount Isa School of the Air;

★ Mount Isa Special School;

★ St Kieren's (private);

★ St Josephs (private);

★ Mount Isa Christan College (private)
And two high schools:

★ Good Shepherd Catholic College (private);

★ Spinifex State College''(This School is broken into a junior and senior campus)''

Climate

'Climate Table'

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Mean daily maximum temperature (°C)	36.4	35.3	34.3	31.8	27.8	24.9	24.7	27.2	31.1	34.6	36.4	37.1	31.8
Mean daily minimum temperature (°C)	23.8	23.5	21.8	18.6	13.9	10.1	8.6	10.3	14.3	18.5	21.4	23.0	17.3
Mean total rainfall (mm)	110.6	99.4	65.6	16.5	13.1	3.8	6.4	4.1	6.9	20.5	34.2	70.7	454.3
Mean number of rain days	7.8	7.3	4.2	1.5	1.2	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.8	2.5	3.9	5.7	36.6
'Source:' Bureau of Meteorology

See also

★ List of cities by surface area

References

External links

★ Mount Isa Theatrical Society

★ Climate statistics for Australian locations