Long before European contact, the Mount Isa region was a centre for trade and production of
dolerite and
basalt stone tools and objects. There is evidence of ground-edge stone tools as old as 20,000 years, the earliest in the world, originating from Mount Isa quarries. As of about 1000 years before the present (BP), large, ground-edge stone axes from Mount Isa were particularly prized by the peoples of the Lake Eyre Basin. They were not only valuable tools, but valuable trade items as well, and were often traded for the tobacco plant
pituri. Archaeologist Iain Davidson suggests that they were traded partly for reasons unrelated to function, as they were often sought after despite the availability of local resources. Leilira blades were also likely produced in the Mount Isa region, though dating is uncertain. Rock art is abundant in the region as well. It largely consists of engraved
petrographs and free-painted designs; stenciled designs are rare. Rock art in the Mount Isa region varies stylistically site-by-site, and includes circular, geometric, and figurative motifs. One figurative motif particular to the Mount Isa region is the north-west central Queensland anthropomorph figure. They are usually painted one color with an outline in a different color (often red and yellow, respectively) and have distinctive feathered headdresses, no face, and often a third leg which is variously interpreted as either a penis or a lizard's tail. These figures are found near reliable water sources, and may have been used to mark trade and travel paths between regions. Analysis indicates that the
ochres used for the paint originate over 100km southeast of Mount Isa. Davidson suggests that, like the Mount Isa stone axes, the ochre was valued for cultural reasons in addition to functional, economic reasons. This, combined with dating marking the anthropomorphs and stone axes as contemporaneous at about 1000 BP, suggests that they were all intertwined components of an extensive trade network stretching across the entire Lake Eyre Basin. The Kalkadoon people first came into contact with advancing European pastoralists and miners in the mid 1860s, following the
Burke and Wills expedition to the Cape York Peninsula in 1861. As settlers and prospectors pressed further into their lands the Kalkadoon set out on one of Australia's most successful guerrilla wars, now known as the
Kalkadoon Wars which took place from about 1871 to 1884. Their success continued until at Battle Mountain in 1884, when Kalkadoon people killed five Native Police and a prominent pastoralist. Only 29 Kalkadoon people survived. In response, the Queensland Government sending a large contingent of heavily armed patrols who chased surviving tribe members. It is estimated that 900 Kalkadoon people were killed during this six-year campaign. There is now a memorial near the site of the Black Mountain., officially opened the railway line on 6 April 1929 In 1923, a lone prospector,
John Campbell Miles, stumbled upon one of the world's richest deposits of copper, silver and zinc during an expedition into the Northern Territory. When Miles inspected the yellow-black rocks in a nearby outcrop, they reminded him of the ore found in the Broken Hill mine that he had once worked at. Upon inspection these rocks were weighty and heavily mineralised. A sample sent away to the assayer in Cloncurry confirmed their value. Miles and four farmers staked out the first claims in the area. Taken with friend's stories of the
Mount Ida gold mines in Western Australia, Miles decided upon Mount Isa as the name for his new claim. interior, 1932|leftMount Isa Post Office opened on 1 August 1924.A location for the town's hospital was chosen in 1929, with a small building completed the following year.The Mount Isa City Library opened in 1974. On 9 June 2000, the first torch relay in Queensland for the
Sydney 2000 Olympics reached Mount Isa. In 2008, plans were made to build a massive motor sports complex on the city's north-eastern outskirts, but as of 2024 it had not been built. In 2008, a
Queensland Health report found that more than 10% of children in Mount Isa had
blood lead levels above
World Health Organization recommendations. The mining operator Glencore denied responsibility and stated that the town has naturally high levels of lead in the soil. However, a 2013 study led by
Macquarie University environmental engineers has used lead isotope analysis to show conclusively that the lead ingested had originated from smelted ore and not surface deposits. In 2015, Mt Isa formed its own Symphony Orchestra, acclaimed as the "most remote in the world". Inaugurated on 23 July 2015, the event attracted several stars of the music world, including world-famous jazz musician
James Morrison. Morrison also figured in the premiere of
Matthew Dewey's 'Symphony of the Inland Sea', composed for the occasion. == Demographics ==