Download coordinates as: Mount Isa (/ˈaɪzə/ EYE-zə) is a city in the Gulf Country region of Queensland, Australia.

[3] Before European contact, the Mount Isa region was part of an expansive trade network spanning the entire Lake Eyre Basin and beyond.

[6] Due to the lead production in the city, Mount Isa needs one of the most intensive air quality monitoring systems in Australia.

Xstrata, the power station and the Airport are on the mineside, whilst the majority of the city, including the CBD and Base Hospital are on the townside.

[11] Long before European contact, the Mount Isa region was a centre for trade and production of dolerite and basalt[13] stone tools and objects.

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.

[14] 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.

[18] Rock art in the Mount Isa region varies stylistically site-by-site, and includes circular, geometric, and figurative motifs.

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.

[13] Some rock art depicting figures and hands in the Mount Isa region, including some of the north-west central Queensland anthropomorphs, have only three fingers.

[20] 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.

In response, the Queensland Government sending a large contingent of heavily armed patrols who chased surviving tribe members.

[23] 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.

The Queensland tour began on Sunday 12 April when the royal yacht Britannia entered Moreton Bay at Caloundra, sailing into Newstead Wharf.

The following day, on 16 April, the Duke of Edinburgh was taken on an underground tour of the Mount Isa mine while Queen Elizabeth stayed above ground.

The Marshalling Area around R62 Shaft Winder Tower was cleaned, and a display was set up using operational mining equipment from underground so Queen Elizabeth II could see it in action.

The mining operator Glencore denied responsibility and stated that the town has naturally high levels of lead in the soil.

[32] Inaugurated on 23 July 2015, the event attracted several stars of the music world, including world-famous jazz musician James Morrison.

[32] On 5 March 2017, Mount Isa was chosen as a host city of the 2018 Commonwealth Games Queen's Baton Relay, along with Cloncurry, Hughenden, Winton and Birdsville.

The baton passed through the Mount Isa CBD and suburbs and regions en route before the opening ceremony on the Gold Coast.

Former Mayor John Molony drew international press attention in August 2008 when he told the Townsville Bulletin newspaper that Mount Isa's gender imbalance made it a good place for "not so attractive" women to live.

[45] The City of Mount Isa LGA jurisdiction, covering 43,188 km2[46] (2nd largest in Australia), is the 15th largest in the world in terms of area[47] and takes in the border town of Camooweal, 188 km (117 mi) to the north-west of Mount Isa and 12 km (7.5 mi) from the border of the Northern Territory.

The mine is the most significant landmark in the area, with the stack from the lead smelter (built 1978), standing 270 m tall, visible from all parts of the city and up to 40 km (25 mi) out.

The city also holds the main campus of the Mount Isa Institute of TAFE, offering courses in a wide range of fields, including mining, agriculture and trades.

In addition, James Cook University has a presence, with the Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health in the Base Hospital complex.

The local theatre group, the Mount Isa Theatrical Society, also known as MITS, often holds plays and musicals, at least once every few months.

[25] Local miners excavated the site which remains today as the only underground health facility in Queensland which was built during World War II.

A taxi service known as "Isa-Curry" express transports passengers to and from the neighbouring centre of Cloncurry to Mount Isa and back again, usually for shopping and medical requirements.

Additionally, many of the city's clubs have courtesy buses to and from their establishments that run seven days a week and into the early hours of the morning.