oxley

West Street and Isa Streets intersection with Isa Street running across left to right. West street was also known as "The Esplanade". This is a cropped image by the photographer. The Comet Studios Postcard shows considerably more details. You will notice that the men are wearing white shirts. The vehicle which is cut off in this image is a hearse and this appears to the location of the "wake'. In the postcard version in the Mount Isa Mines Photographic Collection the details are more pronounced.

In 1926 the Mount Isa Hotel was built by Samuel Allen. A team of tradesmen started construction on the corner of Miles and Marian Streets. It included coffee and dining rooms, saloon bar, lounge, and billiard room on the ground floor, with twenty-three bedrooms with balconies upstairs, stables and a garage at the rear. Mr. H. Smith accepted the position of manager of the new Mount Isa hotel. The hotel license was granted on Wednesday 26th September 1926, and the hotel opened on that day. Locally it was known as the ‘Top Pub”, “Smith’s Pub” and later ‘The Isa”. The Public Bar was boasted as Australia’s longest bar, it later became Australia’s second longest bar. Apparently Kalgoorlie held the record, so they increased the length of their bar by a few inches to regain their record. The bull ring at the Mount Isa Hotel, a square wooden floor area located just off the saloon bar where many arguments were settled with flying fists, resembled a boxing ring, although its primary purpose was to provide ventilation in the centre of the big hotel building. It had long wooden seats for patrons not wishing to sit at the crowded bar. These popular events often required having to book ahead for the tournament.

Mineside looking West. In the foreground the two story buildings were called "Tradesmen's Dormitories", on left were barracks for single men. The next building was also single men's quarters. Centre right was the kitchen and dining hall. The houses were for married men. The following is an extract from the Daily Mercury, Mackay, 10th December 1929. "Permanent quarters are being built on a very large scale. The buildings will have forty bedrooms, each nicely furnished and containing a duchess, a wire stretcher, and wash stand. The buildings are enclosed all round with wire gauze netting to make them fly proof. I believe the Company intends to charge five shillings a week rent for these rooms."