MARY Kathleen has long been a tourism attraction along the Overlanders Way, with many motorists pulling off the highway to see the abandoned uranium mine's open pit filled with turquoise blue water.
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The retired uranium mine was left open for public access since its closure 40 years ago but new regulations caused the Department of Natural Resources and Mines (DNRM) to lock the gate and put up warning signs.
Foot access to the mine is still available to visitors but the days of driving your car or caravan up to the pit are now over.
Mount Isa resident Jim Adlington said the pit was of no obvious danger to the public, despite the new government signage advising of falling rocks, radiation hazards, unstable pit edges and a warning not to drink, swim or dive into the pools of water on the site.
"Contaminated tailings in a nearby creek are being ignored while a safe open pit tourist site several kilometres away in a hill top is closed from the public," he said.
"If the Mary Kathleen open pit is considered to be of such a public risk of falling and unstable rocks - then what evidence is there of other open cut mines in the nearby areas where people have accidentally died that we know of?
"The closure has been a great disappointment to visitors wondering if there is something sinister being protected."
Cloncurry Mary Kathleen Tourist Park was unable to comment on whether tourists were being put off by the locked gate and signage.
A spokesperson from the DNRM said the closure was due to safety issues which were reviewed under the Abandoned Mine Land Program (ALMP) earlier this year.
"It was found that measures previously set in place to restrict access to the site including rock bunding and warning signage still allowed for vehicles and caravans to be taken up to the mine pit, and to bring people into close proximity to a hazard area," the spokesperson said.
Although the department said they were not aware of any reported injuries or accidents at the mine site since its closure, they identified the pit walls and benches as hazards after years of gradual deterioration since the mine's closure.
When access to the mine site was blocked off in early June, Minister Andrew Cripps said the DNRM would drill and make other assessments at the site to evaluate the current condition of the abandoned mine site.
The spokesperson said no final results had been received to date and investigations were ongoing.
