mining

The date is closer to June/July 1930. The electrical switchgear "Switch Room" is near completion. Construction started around September 1929. It was commissioned on 6th December 1930 with one unit. This was the first power station in Australia to use a pulverised coal fuel system and it is listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.

Mount Isa Mine Power Station (1931) From mid-1927 the technical management of Mount Isa Mine was in the hands of the Urquhart group (formerly known as the Russo-Asiatic Consolidated). With their increased capital they set about developing the "most modern mine of the age." The initial powerhouse of Corbould's company was replaced by the steel-framed power station consisting of a coal-fired boiler house and a generator house, designed by JM Callow in 1928 and located at the base of the Mount Isa Mine ridge overlooking the new tent settlement on the bank of the West Leichhardt River. The power station was operational by 1931 and a photograph of it appeared in the Queensland Government Mining Journal on 15 July 1931, which described the Ministerial opening of the new mining plant. It was described as having "twin chimneys rising like black cigars above a roof of dazzling iron".[1] The powerhouse supplied electricity to the town and its houses as well as to the mine until the opening of the Mica Creek power station. In 1951 the powerhouse was extended to supply the new copper smelter. When the Mica Creek power station came into operation supplying electricity, the mine's power station was adapted to supply compressed air for the entire mine operation. It continues to fulfill this function. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Isa_Mine_Early_Infrastructure

Mount Isa, a mining town and the biggest population centre in north-west Queensland, is 820 km west of Townsville, 160 km from the Northern Territory border and 350 km south of the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is situated in an extensive mineral-rich region stretching from south of Cloncurry to west of Burketown. Unlike many other great mining towns, including Broken Hill and Charters Towers, Mount Isa is unlikely to run out of minerals to mine, having mastered the treatment of large volumes of lower grade ore. The Mount Isa mining field was discovered by an itinerant prospector, John Campbell Miles (c1883-1963) in 1923. Miles was camped on the Leichhardt River and took rock samples from an outcrop, knowing by their weight that they were mineralised. A government assayer at Cloncurry found an astonishing lead content of up to 78%. A few months later the Government geologist confirmed the mineral potential, starting a rush of leasehold applications. Miles named the outcrop Mount Isa, explaining in the 1950s that he did so in memory of the Mount Ida mine, about 20 km northwest of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Miles never explained why he substituted Isa for Ida. A rudimentary mining township soon formed and Mount Isa Mines Ltd was floated in January 1924. Storekeepers brought buildings from other towns, mainly Kuridala, south of Cloncurry, and two open-air picture theatres were started. By the end of 1924, there were a provisional school, a progress association, and a surveyed town on the east side of the Leichhardt River. Many businesses had been set up next to the mine on the west side of the river. Putting the town on the east side indicated a certain sensitivity to good town planning. Source: www.queenslandplaces.com.au/mount-isa

7 March 1968 was a Thursday ...

Easiest to see and follow the line of the disused railway using Google Satellite 3D - maps.app.goo.gl/JghBqiu9ZiX1iLGM9

The Silvermines line was a short branch of 1¼ miles, off the Ballybrophy – Killonan line, at Silvermines Jct, between Nenagh and Birdhill. It opened in 1966 to serve a barytes mine. The mine and branch closed in 1993.

thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/ForgottenRailways/Silvermin...

youtu.be/L63o4poXAWQ?si=st_ed-tsPK0Kg4rm

via Fred Dean

Silvermines Junction (MP 35-1/4), the start of the short spur to the mines