We continue our series on when Mount Isa truly was the Wild West, hurly burly days in the early 1920s with fabulous tales of rich claims lost at the turn of a card, of grog shops, fights and the unwritten law of the outback.
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Two weeks ago we wrote about how two foals helped John Campbell Miles found Mount Isa in 1923 and a bunch of prospectors followed in his wake.
Bob Lawlor gave away a valuable lease to Jack Camphell. he town's first butcher, in exchange for a bullock hide.
Ernie Maggs, later Mineside Postmaster, pegged the area where No. 2 Ore shaft was situated but gave it away that night when "gun" miners told him it was useless.
Great obstacles faced the settlers.
Some order had to come out of the early chaos and it came with the founding of a new company in 1924 which would have an auspicious name: Mount Isa Mines.
Transport and water were inadequate. metal values declined with depth. Soon it became obvious that mining the huge low-grade lodes was a company proposition.
Two Companies were formed. Mount Isa Mines Limited was incorporated in New South Wales in 1924 with an authorised capital of $800,000.
The second Company was Mount Isa Pty Silver-Lead Limited which M.I.M. Ltd. acquired the leases and water rights of in November, 1925.
M.I.M.'s first Manager was none other than government geologist E. C. Saint-Smith who resigned his Brisbane position to prove that his first glowing report on the prospect of the field was justified.
The first Chairman of Directors was Douglas McGilvray.
Their confidence was shared by W. H. Corbould (Engineer and Director of Mount Isa Mines Limited) who, perhaps more than any other man. must he credited with the company's ongoing success.
Money was scarce, and the new outback enterprise needed plenty.
So in June 1927. Corbould went to London where a deal was effected with Leslie Urquhart, Chairman of Russso-Asiatic Consolidated Limited.
He gained additional capital to allow diamond drilling, mine development and the erection of a power plant, mill and smelter.
The construction of Rifle Creek Dam, machine shops and dwelling houses began too.
The makings of a township was slowly starting to reform the wild west on the Leichhardt River.
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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.
