When I landed at the Mount Isa airport in Australia’s remote outback country of Queensland, my first impression of the red-dirt mining and ranching town was that I had stumbled on to a film set for a remake of Back to the Future. There is a definite edge-of-the-known-and-the-beginning-of-the-unknown Burke and Wills (the Lewis and Clark of Australia) kind of frontier vibe to the isolated hamlet 1,130 miles inland from the state capital of Brisbane. The weather that time of year is actually fairly mild since Australia is south of the equator and summer doesn’t start there until late December. I was lured there in August of 2023 by a rodeo, then celebrating its 64th year, that rightfully calls itself legendary. Mount Isa Mines Rodeo is Australia and the Southern Hemisphere’s largest and richest rodeo, with almost 1,000 contestants and $300,000 in prize money last year.
The “Mines” are the town’s zinc, lead, silver, and copper operations. But since this was the start of rodeo week, the miners’ hard hats were quickly being replaced with American-style cowboy hats or the short-brimmed low-crowned Akubra-made fedoras preferred by older Aussie stockmen. For four days every August, Mount Isa is all about bronc riding, bull riding and roping, not mining.
It was a long road to get there — almost 8,200 air miles from Los Angeles to Brisbane and finally Mount Isa at the northern end of the rugged Selwyn Range in Queensland. Despite layovers, I was still lucky I got to fly in, since for many of the contestants that were entered it was anywhere from 1,600 to 2,000 miles and 24 to 48 hours’ drive time on rugged roads with long desolate stretches between infrequent pubs or petrol stops and isolated cattle stations. is Australian for ranch, of which there are many — and many huge ones at that — Down Under. Anna Creek Station (established 1863), South Australia’s largest, is bigger than New Jersey. Queensland’s largest, which includes Davenport Downs and Springvale Station (established before 1878) is
