Day 42

DAY 42 – Friday

We got up early and headed for Mt Isa, arriving at about 9am.  After getting fuel, we drove around and found the Tourist Information/Mine Tour, only to find that the next tour wasn’t until 1pm.  We booked in and decided to do some shopping to fill in the time.

Darren found a BCF and I sat in the “bored wives chair” while he looked at everything in the store.  Peter had told him about a free camp where they had managed to net some “red claw”, so Darren decided that he needed some opera house nets.
We got a few things that we needed from the supermarket, and then had a browse around the shopping centre before heading back for the mine tour.  We made lunch in the carpark and then it was time for the tour.

Our tour guide was Bill, who had worked in the mines for 33 years.  We all had to put on orange disposable overalls, a hard hat and big rubber boots before heading off to the mine.  Thomas endeared himself to Bill and the boys became his “right hand men”.  At the entry to the mine, we all had to strap large batteries to our belts and miners lights to our hats, and then we were ready to enter the mine.  We all took turns at having our photo taken in the lift, with Bill hopping into a separate photo with the boys.  He said he would give them the copy of their photo as a momento (the other pictures were available for $10 each at the end of the tour).  Then we stepped into the lift which took us underground.  Bill let the boys go back up with him to get the other half of the group while we waited underground.

Once the whole group was underground, we hopped into a miners carriage, while the boys drove in the “mule” at the front with Bill.  Thomas rang the bell of the engine as we went.  Our “train” stopped at the “crib” room and Bill explained that this was where the miners started and finished their day, as well as being their tea and muster room. 
We all selected a name tag from the board and hung it on the “IN” board to show that we were in the mine.  We then walked down a corridor into the mine.  Bill was a fantastic guide, as he passed on his knowledge and memories from working in the mines.  The mine that we did the tour in was never a working mine, but had been built at a cost of $12 million for tours.  It has been set up exactly like a working mine, with equipment and machinery no longer used in the real mine being set up to show how the mines operate.
We got to drill a dynamite hole in a rock face, see a mine digging truck in action, as well as hear the stories that Bill remembered from his mining days.  Thomas and Mitchell enjoyed all the hands on experiences that they were able to experience.

Once we had seen the mine, we went back to the “crib” room and moved our tags to the “OUT” wall to show that we were out of the mine, and made a cuppa.  Bill then showed us how the bosses checked that everyone was out of the mine before letting Thomas push the button that set off the charges to blow the wall of the mine.  He pushed the button, and we experienced the sounds and vibrations that come with the blast.  We finished our cuppas and headed back to the lift with the boys riding in the “mule” again.

The boys operated the lift to get us back to the surface and we returned our battery packs and lights to be charged.  We washed our boots and returned them to the shelves, then went into the change rooms and took off our overalls.  We had to return the hard hat and belt, but were able to keep the overalls.  Teresa had been told that they were good for keeping the mozzies away, so we kept them.

The photos were at the main counter, so we purchased our family one, and Bill came out to make sure the boys got theirs for free.  We thanked him for the tour and went back to the car and got back on the road.

We arrived in Cloncurry at about 4.30pm and filled up with fuel.  As we were driving through the town there were people everywhere, lining the streets holding red balloons.  Darren hopped on the UHF to see if anyone would tell him what was going on.  We found out that it was the “Merry Muster”, which was a local annual celebration.  We didn’t have time to stop, so we got back on the road again.

The sun was setting when we got to the free camp, and there were already a lot of campers.  We found a spot where we were happy to set up and the boys could put their swags under a picnic shelter next to the van. 

I put some putanesca sauce on the stove and Mitch put some water on the portable gas cooker for the pasta, while Darren and Thomas had a look around.  They got chatting to the people in the van next to us.  There were two couples that had met that night too.  They were Jimmy and Sue from Portland, and Marilyn and Warren from Western Australia.  They both had dogs travelling with them, so Thomas elected himself chief “dog looker afterer”.  They had decided to have a barbecue tea that night, and we had our pasta at the same time.  The boys put on their mine tour overalls to avoid being bitten by mosquitos, and much to Marilyns delight, he gave her one of the spare suits to wear too.  We chatted to them for a while before heading to bed.