World’s Biggest City Retains Pioneer Spirit

Just outside the city limits, dingoes and wild camels roam, the mysterious and eerie light that is called Min-Min speeds across the fields and drivers dodge kangaroos and emus.

One of the world’s unexplained mysteries, the Min-Min light was first reported more than a century ago when it appeared above the Min-Min graveyard one night and followed a stockman into Boulia, a neighboring township.

Resembling a ball of fire, sometimes stationary, sometimes bounding across the dry Mitchell grass country, the light has been seen by thousands but its mystery has never been solved.

If you’re talking square miles, Mount Isa is the world’s largest city, according to the “Guinness Book of World Records.”

Los Angeles, with 465 square miles, and Beijing, whose special municipal district--including surrounding farmlands--covers 6,873 square miles, are considered massive cities.

But Mount Isa is more than double the area of Beijing. It stretches across 15,816 square miles, an expanse the size of Switzerland.

25,000 Residents

Snuggled in the center of western Queensland, Mount Isa is 1,000 miles inland from Brisbane and about 500 miles northeast of Alice Springs, the only other town of consequence in these parts. Alice counts 24,000 residents, Mount Isa 25,000.

Within the city limits stretches the world’s longest street, the 117 miles of Barkly Highway from Mount Isa to its outer “suburb.”

That’s the township of Camooweal, which has a hotel, a motel, a cafe, a post office, two stores, a garage, a hospital and some unusual limestone caves nearby.

In the opposite direction is historic Cloncurry, whose Afghan and Chinese cemeteries date back to the days of camel trains and gold rushes at Top Camp and Pumpkin Gully.

Eerie Phenomenon

South of Isa and west of the rust-red tribal grounds of the Jirandalis stands Boulia township, home of the eerie Min-Min light.

Mount Isa is in an untamed part of Australia that continues to feel the spirit of pioneers. Rivers and roads carry the names of early explorers. Inhabitants are still opening a vast wilderness. Barely 100 years ago Aborigines and white men fought their only pitched battle in history near here.

Open Country

Few roads are fenced. Outback drivers slow for straying kangaroos, sheep and emus. While much of the region is harsh and rugged, after a good rain the plains and channel country come to life with wildflowers. Here dingoes lurk and wild camels roam.

Amid the surrounding mountains is Australia’s “little Grand Canyon,” Porcupine Gorge National Park.

Visitors can stay on a working sheep station, stop by the tiny town of McKinley where part of the hit film, “Crocodile Dundee,” was shot, or mosey over to Combo water hole where Banjo Patterson wrote “Waltzing Matilda.”

Aboriginal rock carvings and paintings thousands of years old are hidden in the surrounding rocks.

When a prospector named John Campbell Miles discovered what was to become Mount Isa in 1923 he was en route to an infamous cattle trail, the Murranji Track in the Northern Territory, in search of gold.

Company of Horses

A loner who liked nothing better than a solitary bushman’s camp and the company of his horses, Miles thought he saw the yellow metal while tending a sick mare. It turned out to be lead. Later silver and copper.

Not a bad discovery, considering that today’s Mount Isa Mines is the free world’s largest single-mine producer of silver and lead. It ranks among the world’s top 10 producers of copper and zinc, and the company is Queensland’s biggest single industrial undertaking.

The mine is the reason for the town. Its tunnels are wide enough to drive a bus through.

In addition to being the world’s largest city and having one of the world’s largest mines, Mount Isa has another claim to fame: the world’s longest milk run. Milk is delivered daily by train from Townsville 600 miles away.

Atop Lookout Hill, with its well-known global signpost, visitors scan the orderly, well-planned city on the Leichardt River with wide streets and attractive parks.

No Rough Mining Town

Mount Isa residents claim the highest ratio of swimming pools in Australia. And they have a low crime rate, unusual for a mining town whose populace represents 60 nationalities.

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You can fly Qantas round trip from Los Angeles to Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane for $1,470 U.S. until March 31 (high season); it’s $1,270 during April, and $1,070 from May 1 to Sept. 30 (low season). The round trip from Brisbane to Mount Isa is $202 by train, $180 by bus, $392 on Australian Airlines.

Accommodations in the area cost about $30 to $40 U.S. for a double. Recommended: Copper Gate Motel, 97-99 Marian St., Mount Isa 4825, Queensland, Australia, $37; Argent Hotel, corner of Isa and West streets, Mount Isa 4825, Queensland, $30; Burke & Wills Isa Resort, Grace and Camooweal streets, Mount Isa 4825, Queensland, $68; Verona Motel, Camooweal and Marian streets, Mount Isa 4825, $59, or through Best Western Motels, toll-free (800) 528-1234.

For more information on travel to Queensland, contact the Queensland Tourist & Travel Corp., 6111 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles 90004, (213) 465-8418.