Mary Kathleen, is an old uranium mining town, about mid way between Mount Isa and Cloncurry.

Clem Walton and Norm McConachy discovered uranium there in 1954, and named it after McConachy's wife.

They onsold their mining rights, and in 1955 Rio Tinto Mining formed Mary Kathleen Uranium Ltd to start mining and build a service town. Mary Kathleen grew during 1956-58.

The Mary Kathleen townsite itself was six km away from the open cut mine pit. It eventually had a post office, cinema, sports ovals, a school, banks and a community store.

Mary Kathleen was closed down in 1963 after they had fulfilled their contract to supply Uranium to the UK Atomic Energy Authority well ahead of schedule.

Eventually they got new supply contracts with Japanese, German and American power utilities so Mary Kathleen was re-opened in 1974.

This time it worked until 1982 when reserves were finally exhausted. The site was rehabilitated, and most of the buildings sold and removed.

And that is how the town remains today - a Ghost Town.

If you're ever out in this part of the world, its worth a visit to Mary Kathleen, although I suspect you might have to be quick. Uranium and Nuclear power are gaining favour these days, and rumour has it there's been a lot of people snooping around Mary Kathleen recently - and I can confirm new fences have been erected around the place - so it wouldn't surprise me if it was re-opened again in the not too distant future.

I couldn't find Mary Kathleen on the maps attached to this blog - so its actually pointing to the nearest big town - Cloncurry. If you want to go to mary Kathleen, its actual Lat/Lon co-ordinates are:

20.7833° S, 139.9833° E

And there is a great Kathleen visitors centre in Cloncurry - its probably worth visiting the Cloncurry visitors centre before going out to mary Kathleen - they can give you maps etc so you'll get a better understanding of what you're looking at.