A week out from the Back to Mount Isa celebrations this weekend, something caught his eye that turned out to be a huge part of Mount Isan history.

The Gestetner 120 was a printer sold in Sydney between 1952 and 1960.

Mr Wright said the man discarding it told him that one of his family members had used it to churn out papers during the dispute and it had been buried in his families shed since then. The dispute was an industrial war fought in Mount Isa from 1964-65.

The main cause of the conflict was a disagreement on how the wealth of a very productive field should be shared.

Copper smelters closed, which soon led to the closing of the copper refinery in Townsville and drastic reduction in the coal output at Bowen.

``The economy of the country had been adversely affected and the implications where felt right around the world,'' Mount Isa Mayor Tony McGrady said.

Worried, the Queensland government declared a state of emergency in Mount Isa and empowered the company to sack miners who refused to work on contract.

Upon reporting for work each man was asked if he would accept contract work, each man refused and the company ceased all mining operations, effectively locking the gates to workers.

Police were given the power to order anyone from the field and ban printed literature.

Mayor Tony McGrady remembers one of the provisions of the dispute being that three people could not get together because it constituted a meeting and that you couldn't have any instruments of printing.

``The miners would do a leaflet.

They would have the machine at one person's house, then the police would find out so they would move it to another's and so on.''

 ``It's part of industrial folklore - I reckon this would be the machine which went from house to house in the dispute and what better time to find it than this week to coincide with the Back to Mount Isa reunion celebrations.'' 

The Gestetner 120 printer will be on display for the duration of the event.