While a community's body and soul is its people, it is the streets which act as the skeleton holding within them its economic, residential and recreational activities.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Have you ever wondered how your street gained its name? Or why your suburb is so named?
Have you ever wondered how your street was named or who it was named after?
Why were suburbs called Happy Valley or Soldiers Hill?
Or where was Mineside, that locals talk about?
As John Campbell Miles' campsite quickly grew into a community of gougers, miners, and opportunists, so too did the township of Mount Isa necessitating the need for identification of where folk resided.
No longer could Joe Blow be identified by living under the humpy down by the southern water hole (commonly called the Irish Free State) or Mary Lou and family camped at the bottom of the north gap hill.
And so the town grew not as one central part, as we know it today, but as two sections colloquially known as Mineside and Town Side which straddled the railway line and an outcrop of the Selwyn Range where the mine was established.
Mineside was once a thriving oasis community full of trees and bougainvillea of riotous colour.
Oban Road with one of the oldest names was a main passage way into streets such as Nettle, Rosalie, Spruce and Quandong; long gone are others named School Road and Pendine Street to name but two.
As the mine grew so too did Town Side; extending north and south along the Leichhardt River at the demise of Mineside which was demolished in the late 1970s and early 1980s to allow for mining expansion.
But during the those early years there was little structure of lanes or streets let alone roads as the townspeople generally had little faith in the longevity of the Company.
Fortunately with the rise of the price of lead and the exploitation of the copper deposits in the late 1920s, a more orderly layout was established.
And one of the earliest streets to be named by the Cloncurry Shire Council was Camooweal Street (not to be confused with Camooweal Road aka Barkly Highway) as it was the main thoroughfare between the mining town of Duchess in the south and the border town of Camooweal in the North West.
For decades Camooweal Street was known as the main street, the longest street and by far the widest one which was a necessity for the early bullock trains to be able to turn around.
And as the mine prospered, so too did Mount Isa with three new suburbs being built during the 1950s.
There was great enthusiasm and community spirit when it came to naming of the new suburbs and the streets.
Soldiers Hill, one of the first housing developments gained its name from a competition conducted in MIMAG.
The winners, D J Ratcliffe and D Lowry won £5 each for naming the streets and roads in the new suburb in honour of the villages and towns in Papua and New Guinea - Owen Stanley, Markham and Kokoda Roads were joined by Bougainville, Wewak, Lae, Finschafen, Buna, Wau, Rabual, Marauke, Tarakan and Salamaua Streets.
The following year, 1956, the 'Mimag' and Cloncurry Shire Council again sponsored another street naming contest for the new area of Happy Valley.
And it was indeed a very happy chap who worked in the Assay Office, who took home Five Guineas (£5/5/-) for naming the streets after Australian gemstones.
He chose Opal Street for Australia's national gemstone and because it was the longest street in the new suburb.
Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire Streets were named for the Queensland gems, while Crystal and Topaz were well known gems from all States.
The middle 1950s proved a bonanza for the building industry as yet another area needed street naming; the suburb now known as Miles End.
Urquhart, Hilton, Davidson, O'Doherty, Skewes and Kennedy Streets were all named in honour of the early mining pioneers be they gougers or mine personnel.
The Gap was aptly named as it grew around the base and through the gap of an outshoot of the Selwyn Range.
And for Healy residents your streets were named after the builders and suppliers associated with constructing the various suburbs in Mount Isa; J D Morris & Sons, J H Burton & Co, Jim O'Shea, Todd & Associates, Transfield, Thiess and Steelcon are a few of the many companies that either built or provided materials for Healy and other suburbs.
While the suburb of Pioneer honours a number of the early citizens through names such as Noakes, Boyd, Kaeser, Tadman and Walton Streets.
In other instances, naming of the streets was left to the Town Planning Department, firstly of Cloncurry Shire Council followed by Mount Isa Shire Council before it became Mount Isa City Council.
It is understandable that Camooweal Road was later named Barkly Highway as it lead to the Barkly Tablelands into the North Territory.
And that the main supply road between Townsville and Mount Isa was called Flinders Highway in honour of the great explorer of the district, thereby making Mount Isa the junction of these two great highways.
The question now is when, why and for what reason did Flinders Highway between Cloncurry and Mount Isa get renamed Barkly Highway?
Regardless of the name of your street or in which suburb you lived, as Nat King Cole sang ' … it's just a little street where old friends meet …'.
Researched and written by Kim-Maree Burton. www.kimmareeburton.com
Photographs supplied by North Queensland History Collection. Information sourced from MIMAG, Cloncurry Advocate, Mt Isa Mail and the North West Star newspaper.
This article first appeared in The North West Star on February 8, 2013.
You can also read the history column online at www.northweststar.com.au