Other huts had walls made from beaten-out chemical drums from the mill, antbed floors and corrugated iron roofs.

The settlement of Mount Isa Mines was built by the company on its leases for its own men, a planned and self-contained town which was approached through a valley guarded by a gatekeeper.

His policy sprang from his experience in Russia and he realised that in a region with a harsh climate and a reputation for industrial unrest of the employees' welfare was an essential investment.

[4] By mid-1929 fifty cottages for workmen and seven staff houses had been completed, along with reticulated water supply and septic tank installation.

The growth of the community continued to present problems for company management during the years when there was difficulty financing housing developments.

These were in a bad state of repair, and after representations by the employees in this section, the company agreed to furnish the material for converting these temporary dwellings into tent houses.

But it was the massive expansion of copper mining in the Old Black Rock lease in the 1960s which led to the removal of most of the early buildings of the company town as they were located on top of the ore.[1][6] The tent house at Fourth Avenue, now managed by the National Trust, was one of the last remaining in the city in 1967 when it was decided to retain it as a museum piece.

Its survival is due to the local community wanting to retain a physical link with the early mining settlement.