In early 1980 there was a row between the State Government and Mount Isa City Council with the government accusing the council of developing a shanty town fringe dweller situation at the Orana and Yallambee Aboriginal reserves on the outskirts of town. Aboriginal leaders said the state of the reserves was shocking but Alderman Bob Moore said the reserves were not their responsibility and council blamed state Aboriginal Minister Charles Porter for his arrogant, evasive and dogmatic decisions. After much wrangling the state agreed to accept control of Orana and Yallambee later in the year.
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Alderman John Molony led the Anzac Day march that year in the regimental dress of the 7th Light Horse mounted on his Australian stock horse Willet. Mount Isas last remaining Gallipoli survivor, Paddy McCarthy, was still there now aged 92. Mr McCarthy took the salute from veterans, pipe bands, members of the 35 Field Squadron and the Royal Australian Enginnering Squad.
Mount Isa Golf Club celebrated its 30th anniversary in 1980 with the clubs first president Klem Gross remembering the old course which was a six hole dirt and sand field in the middle of the Leichhardt River.
On June 16, Mount Isa Mines director Keith Shann was knighted in the Queens Birthday honours for his work in public relations. Mr Shann had also served as Australias ambassador to Japan, India and the Philippines.
There was a brutal murder on October 16, 1980 when Alvise Alf Svoch was killed at his home on Helen St. Thieves beat him to death before absconding with blankets and a radio.
State member Angelo Bartoni narrowly held on to his Mount Isa seat despite a strong challenge from Labors Tony McGrady, needing postal votes to secure victory.
In 1981 Mount Isa held its first ever Australia Day celebrations with West St transformed into a massive performance stage for choirs, pottery demonstrations and stalls with a parade that went from Isa St to the Civic Centre followed by a flag raising ceremony and citizenship ceremony, which in those days was called a naturalisation ceremony.
In June 1981 filming began in Mount Isa for a TV series with the working title The Alcheringa Stone (It was released in 1983 under the title Silent Reach). There was glamour in the Isa as its stars Graham Kennedy, Robert Vaughn and Helen Morse were seen walking the streets.A studio spokesperson said Mount Isa was the perfect backdrop for the story about a diamond miner who discovers corruption in the mining company which leads other to plot to kill him.
On July 20, Mount Isa Mines celebrated a half century of silver-lead production with the governor-general Sir Zelman Cowen in attendance.
On September 30 there was scandal when after Joseph Kite pleaded not guilty to the murder of his 35-year-old wife Leigh Kite he gave evidence where he admitted he stabbed her and buried the weapon in the banks of the Leichhardt River. Kite was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour.
There was more tragedy on February 7, 1982 when the man known as Mount Isas Birdman died when a hang-gliding jump went horribly wrong. Peter Hodgson aged 42, died instantly when his glider fell 33 metres into an island on the middle of Lake Mary Kathleen. Hodgson was also an expert rodeo bullrider and was expected to win his third successive strong man title at the 1982 Campbell Miles Festival.
As it turned out, the Campbell Miles Festival never happened that year. Authorities announced it would be replaced by the first Mount Isa Agricultural Show which attracted a crowd of 16,500 to Kalkadoon Park on June 25 to watch exhibitions of the Marlboro Precision Driving Team.
A few days later the city was under the microscope when the Human Rights Commission said the citys hoteliers, police and taxi drivers carried out extreme prejudice, a claim rejected by Bob Katter snr MP and mayor Franz Born who said the city with its 51 nationalities was racially tolerant.
The refurbished Star Theatre opened on September 24 showing new movies such as Grease 2, Firefox and Far East however there was sad news when Mary Kathleen Uranium decided to close, leaving it a ghost town by the end of the year.
There was better news in May 1983 when Education Minister Lin Powell came to town to officially open the new $245,000 School of the Air building. The ceremony concluded with a planting of a gum tree in memory of the first teacher in charge of the North-Wests School of the Air Bridget Bid OSullivan. OSullivan, then 63, began lessons in 1959 in a converted house which also housed the Flying Doctor Service in Cloncurry. The first broadcast began: This is a proud day for Cloncurry and the Royal Flying Doctor Service. It is the very first day of the School-of-the-Air.
1983 was the Rotary Rodeos 25th anniversary attracting 25,000 to the Mardi Gras.
The year ended with State Nationals MP Angelo Bertoni losing the election to Labor candidate Bill Price.
The 1984 monsoons were big with the state declaring a natural disaster area in Mount Isa and Cloncurry and an 11-year-old boy needing to be rescued from the Alma St crossing.
On June 4, 1984 there was pandemonium at a Rose Tattoo concert in town when frontman Angry Anderson was pelted by a full can of beer causing the band to walk off-stage and leading to a 750-strong riot and several arrests.
Meanwhile the arrival of colour TV was enough to kill off the Tropicaire Drive-In and on September 4, 1984 it aired its last double feature The Slim Dusty Movie and Mother Lode.
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
