Below is an exceptional article from the Queenslander of 1924.  A remarkable record so soon after the discovery of Mt Isa and replete with the excitement of such a significant discovery.  At the time of writing a mere 145 tons of ore had been shipped. The original has been transcribed from the Queenslander newspaper, where the ink has been absorbed by the newsprint making transcription locally difficult. Some editorial licence has been taken and minor alterations, including conversion into g/t, have been made and images added.

MOUNT ISA.
A GREAT SILVER-LEAD FIELD.

By RANDOLPH BEDFORD.
Saturday, January 26, 1924

In 1918 I travelled by Argylla and West Leichhardt to Lagoon Creek – 18 miles west of West Leichardt Telegraph Station returning to Cloncurry by a little east of the Sulieman Creek-Camooweal railway survey, via Bushy Park and Duchess. My journey was made to locate Mica deposits on Mica Creek, and returning from these I passed the Mount Isa field at a distance of a few miles, and on the wrong side of the range, as a hundred other men have done. For, as John Forrest said in explanation of failing to see gold although hw was on the Coolgardie field 23 years before their discovery: “A man gets what he’s looking for, and Forrest was looking for pastoral country.

Continue reading “The Most Important Mining Discovery of the Last Decade” →