We have the spent the past 2 days at Mt. Isa. Yesterday we visited the Mt. Isa Museum, the Riversleigh Fossil centre and the lookout (photo). The town is so close to the mine. It does look rather dirty during the day. We also drive out to Moondarra dam and just missed the subset. Grandpa Verne joined us for dinner - it was nice to hear his mining stories while here in Mt. Isa.

Today we went on an underground mine tour - it was great. The 'hard times' mine that we toured was built for tourism and training but is very much like the real thing. The guide has worked in mines for years and was a wealth of knowledge - he kept everyone on the tour, including our boys, enthralled for 2.5 hours. In the late afternoon we went out to the dam again, this time with Verne and just in time to watch the sunset. We had a picnic dinner then went to the lookout again to see the town and mines lit up.