Qantas celebrates 100 years this year and Mount Isa was an early and important part of its story, indeed arguably it was the founding of the mining city that cemented the airline's reputation as a lasting force.
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Q.A.N.T.A.S began in 1920 as the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service with its route from Charleville to Cloncurry, some three years ahead of John Campbell Miles first pegging his prospect at Mount Isa and another year ahead of the establishment of Mount Isa Mines.
Mount Isa was remote but its location fitted perfectly in Qantas's thinking,
The Longreach Leader of April 17, 1924 reported that Qantas directors wanted to extend the route from Cloncurry to 'the new Mt. Isa silver-lead field and onto Camooweal, the front door of the Northern Territory".
"The service will lead out on to one of Australia's richest pastoral areas, the Barclay (sic) Tablelands and will be of great value to the district by giving quicker communication with the south," the Leader wrote.
The Leader correctly predicted Isa would become a major mining centre and the town and the airline would help each other.
"It is not often the aeroplane is privileged to assist in the opening of a new mining field but the opportunity seems to lie in Mt Isa," it said.
"The new extension emphatically stands for mining and pastoral interests and for pushing on aerial communications to Darwin which will become the front door of Australia."
One of Qantas's founders Hudson Fysh visited Mount Isa that year and found good landing spots there and also in Duchess and Camooweal.
On December 5, Fysh was at the controls for the first trial run from the Curry to Camooweal completed in two hours and 35 minutes.
He flew over Devoncourt, Duchess and Mount Isa and took with him a case of fruit, a block of ice and 30 ten shilling notes.
The Cloncurry-Camooweal service opened in February 1925 in a De Haviland 4 though the Leader didn't specify if it stopped in Mount Isa.
By May 1925 the service was definitely stopping in Mount Isa, as recounted by Qantas's first passenger Alexander Kennedy who travelled specifically to see the new mining town.
Kennedy had been familiar with the area since he took up Calton Hill in 1881 and said about the mine "I have the utmost faith in its future."
Jim Boyd was the local agent from his store in West St and there was a coup for the new town with the arrival by Qantas of the incoming governor-general John Baird on August 19.
The Brisbane Courier reported the plane circled the mine and then landed two and a half miles away.
Mine and Cloncurry Shire officials escorted the party to the O'Doherty shaft at Black Rock and were lowered to the bottom in skips but the governor-general's wife was advised against walking back to the surface.
Nevertheless the visit was a huge boost for Mount Isa and for Qantas.
The airline made a near £3000 pound profit for 1925 though it would take many years for Mount Isa Mines to do the same.
Nevertheless both the airline and the mining city were on their way to becoming permanent assets for Australia.
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.
