We began with a look at the newspaper archive Trove's first mention of Mount Isa and we continued to explore the newspapers which asked if the Mount Isa find would lift "Cloncurry's dark cloud".

Now we take a closer look at the how the prospector John Campbell Miles started the Mount Isa rush.

The Melbourne-born Miles was a dogged prospector who had tried his hand at Broken Hill, then the Oaks at Einasleigh until low prices following the First World War depressed the industry.

Back in Melbourne in 1921, he decided to try his luck in the Northern Territory.

His journey was unhurried: by the following Christmas he had progressed only as far as the almost deserted Cloncurry copper fields.

Miles was a keen horseman and his gelding Hard Times was recognised as one of the best around.

Miles bought two blood mares and two foals with the intention of selling them in the Northern Territory and he would do some prospecting along the way.

He arrived in the West Leichhardt region in the heat of February 1923 on the long and lonely track between Cloncurry and Camooweal and decided to do a side detour to inspect likely outcrops.

With no early rain that summer the Leichhardt river was down to a trickling stream as Miles and his horses approached it.

Though Hard Times was still strong his two foals were starting to limp and Miles decided to camp on the riverbank.

While the horses munched fresh grass, Miles took a walk occasionally stopping to examine rocks among the spinifex.

Pausing to fill a pipe, he kicked a dark rock which was surprisingly solid and heavy when he picked it up.

Suddenly interested, Miles chipped off unweathered portions of the outcrop which were also dark and heavy.

Though at Broken Hill he learned to recognise galena, sulphide of lead, he could not identify this rock, a carbonate of lead.

Miles put samples in a bag and headed south past Mica Creek where he knew a party of gougers were working mica and later gold at an unpromising prospect called "Native Bee".

These men, Con Davidson, Bill Simpson, Jim Mullavey and Jim Roberts knew a lot about copper and gold but none could recognise Miles's new mineral.

They all agreed a sample should be sent to Cloncurry for assaying.

Two months later another Native Bee miner, Bill Purdy, was in Cloncurry when the news came out two months later the assay had showed results of 60 percent lead and 2000 ounces of silver to the ton.

Purdy quickly spread the word among the Leichhardt gougers.

A delighted Miles named the hill behind his original discovery "Mount Isa" in honour of his niece Isabelle.

Along with Bill Simpson, he pegged out 40 acres (16ha) around the outcrop and also acquired a mineral lease called Racecourse.

Later the took up the rich Black Star lease.

Davidson, Roberts, Mulhavey and Purdy all pegged claims and a rush followed as the news filtered out to the wider mining community.

Before long, there were 500 claims in a 60 sqkm area around the West Leichhardt.

As the MIMAG edition which told the story said, "they were hurly burly days with fabulous tales of rich claims lost at the turn of a card, of grog shops, fights and the unwritten law of the outback".

Within a year a new company was founded that would establish some order out of the early chaos.

To be continued next week.