The Birthplace of Champions is about to get a makeover – well maybe not the place but the signs marking the place.
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The five signs on the edge of two – two on the Cloncurry entrance, two near the airport and one on the Boulia road – have been celebrating Mount Isa as the birthplace of six champions for a number of years.
But the signs, which feature didgeridoo player William Barton, league player Scotty Prince, actor Deb Mailman, Aussie rules star Simon Black, golfing legend Greg Norman and tennis great Pat Rafter, are starting to look tatty and are set to be replaced in the coming weeks.
Tony McGrady said the five original sponsors of the signs (Mount Isa Irish Club, Qld Country Credit Union, Stanwell Power. Incitec Pivot and Mount Isa Mines) have come back on board to replace the signs with one sign for each sponsor.
“There are only two changes to the original signs,” Mr McGrady said.
“We’ve got a new photo of the background of the city and we’ve got a new photo of Debbie Mailman to reflect she is now a mature actress not a young starlet.”
Mr McGrady said he had been contacted with suggestions for other names to join the honour list but many of these day to be ruled out as they were not born in Mount Isa.
“I plan to do this every three years from now on, it’s difficult to find someone of the calibre to go on this board but who knows – in three years time, we may have another champion.”
Mr McGrady said the idea for the signs in the first place came from when Simon Black won the Brownlow Medal – the highest individual award in AFL – and mentioned he was born in Mount Isa in an interview.
“Next morning Red Symons rang me up and said, ‘what’s in the bloody water in Mount Isa, you’ve got Rafter, you got Norman and now you’ve got Black’,” he said.
“I made some enquiries and it seemed (Black) was born in Mount Isa but after about six weeks they moved away, so he still qualifies.”
Of the others Mr McGrady said the Arthur Peterson Centre taught William Barton to play the didgeridoo and now he plays internationally with the likes of the Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra.
“The man is a star and something we’ve never highlighted,” he said.
Mr McGrady said the final design for the new signs have been approved and should be in place “in the next two weeks”.