Mt Isa and Tennant Creek

We had to be in Mt Isa by a certain date as we had booked the car in to have a service which is why we were limited in Winton. Boy Mt Isa was hot but bigger than we expected it to be. Believe it or not Mt Isa is one of the biggest cities in the world with an area of 41,000 square kilometres and a population of around 20,000 and is described as the Oasis of the Outback. Again it's history is steeped in mining and was once a raw frontier town. In 1942 it was on a war footing, the Japanese had bombed Darwin which resulted in heavy casualties so they decided to build a hospital underground in Mt Isa in case of attack. It never had to be used and has been restored as a museum, it is next to the current hospital and an interesting place to visit. it was equipped with beds, instruments and dressings which are still on show. We stayed 2 nights in Tennant Creek in a lovely caravan park with a lovely shaded site. The town itself was a bit dilapidated (I thought) with groups of Aborigines everywhere you looked. The town began as the last great gold rush of Australia, it only occurred in the 1930's so the town is really relatively young. Because the country was in the depression it attracted a lot of prospectors to the area. We really stayed on the park apart from visiting the Aboriginal Centre Nyinkka Nyunyu in the middle of town which to my disappointment was closed but the cafe was open so had lunch there. Apparently this centre is reputed to be one of the best which apart from other information explains family relationships and skin names. We also visited the Battery Hill Mining Centre where we found lots of information about the pioneers of the area. We also drove to Lake Mary Jane which is used extensively by the town folk for swimming, we walked across the dam and could see the old dry riverbed on the other side. The Telegraph Station just outside of town was another interesting visit for us, it took 7 hours for a message to be relayed to London, now it takes only seconds by email. Another interesting character called jimmy Hooker known as the Bush Tucker Man of Barkly entertained us around the camp fire with his stories and poets. He gave us lemon grass tea from the billy and fruit cake baked on the campfire. He also demonstrated some of the medicinal remedies from plants in the bush and plants that you could eat which I really enjoyed. He was a lovely man who can't read or write but has so much knowledge in his head about the bush.