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Mount Isa lays claim to being the largest city in the world by area, with an area of 42,904 sq. km being administered by the Mount Isa City Council. The town of Camooweal, located 188 km to the west, is in fact a 'suburb' of the city.

This is a factoid and is actually not true. There is another city in Australia which is larger than Mount Isa. It also, incorrectly, claims to be the largest city in the world in terms of its area.

Firstly, this proves the statement incorrect. This comes from the Mount Isa's city council web site...

Often labelled Australia’s premier mining city, Mount Isa holds a number of other impressive titles such as “world’s second largest city”, with its main street stretching some 188 kms to Camooweal, a small township that is part of the Mount Isa local government area of some 43,010 square kms. http://www.mountisa.qld.gov.au/welcome/The_City_Today/the_city_today.html

The city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder web site used to claim it was the worlds largest city. Now they settle for suggesting they're Australia's largest city. Their size is 95228.5 sq kms. http://www.councils.wa.gov.au/directory/council_websites/kalgoorlie_boulder/council_profile_folder_view

Now to disprove the Mount isa council's claim to 2nd largest city in the world we have the chinese city of Chongqing. They also, incorrectly, claim to be the worlds largest city. This city is bigger than mount isa and smaller than Kalgoorlie-Boulder. http://www.china.org.cn/ChinaToday/Today/ChinaToday/ct98/ct98-10-5.html

To be honest, there are a great number of cities claiming to be the worlds largest in terms of area. I have no idea which one actually is the largest but it certainly isn't Mount Isa (which doesn't even come second).

Sorry to Burst your Bubble Mount Isa Factoid Killer 16:16, 18 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

World's largest cities

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I've started an article listing the world's largest cities in terms of area.

List of cities by size (area)

So far Mount Isa is in 4th place. Factoid Killer 11:49, 5 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

At present count, Mount Isa is in third place. Zamboanga never claimed any larger area than 2,780 sq km (which was in 1937). The size of Zamboanga now is only slightly larger than the size of Brisbane. Figaro 04:28, 20 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

This isn't really the right place to discuss that article, however, the source i provided states that Zamboanga city is 278 thousant hectares. There are 10 000 Sq metres in 1 hectare which means there are 2780000000 sq metres in Zamboanga. This equates to 2 780 000 sq Kms unless I missed something.Factoid Killer 10:57, 21 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

You did miss something. A square kilometre is a million square metres, not a thousand. Figaro 12:02, 21 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

A point that has been missed in all these claims, is that Mount Isa claims to be the largest city in the world becuase the main street is the longest (ie 188 klms long) User:isaboy 54

Airlines and suburbs.

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Mount Isa is served by Macair and Qantas. Qantas flights are straight ISA-BNE routes, but Macair has flights which visit many outback towns while en route to Cairns, Townsville, and Brisbane. This is plainly obvious when you look at the Macair webpage. Why the need for a citiation tag?

And what exactly do you wish cited in the "suburbs" section? The list of suburbs seems to be accurate. Myself, I always considered the railway line to be the boundary between "mineside" and "townside", but I live in Cloncurry and only visit Mount Isa for work/shopping etc. The "unsourced information by amateur editors" summary on your previous Mount Isa edit would suggest that these citation tags are more to do with your dispute with MichelleCrisp than anything else. Johnmc (talk) 03:39, 18 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

totally agreed. I'll remove the tag for suburbs. where airlines fly is generally not disputable hence no need for tag. Michellecrisp (talk) 05:15, 18 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]


The lead posioning controversy

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Perhaps a section should be added on the Queensland Health report that stated 11.4% of children in Mount Isa had dangerously high levels of lead in their blood. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.20.35.102 (talk) 02:11, 27 June 2008 (UTC) Report link to the blood levels is broken. The report is relocated here: http://www.health.qld.gov.au/ph/documents/tphn/mtisa_leadrpt.pdf I am very new as a user on Wikipedia, therefore its probably more polite for me to leave this link handy for someone more savvy with editing to correct. Quietworker (talk) 10:31, 12 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Quietworker! I've updated the URL. Kerry (talk) 23:21, 12 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Women

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Apparently, the actual male-female ratio is very typical, 52.6:47.3. See http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,405243,00.html . Superm401 - Talk 00:20, 19 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What the...?

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Reverted this [1] edit, removing this entry.

"Also of note was the construction of the 876m wide "heater" during the mid 80's. In conjuction with the Americian and Australian Governments, the D.A.M.O was constructed as part of a secret military base. The exact use of D.A.M.O is unknown but what is known is the extreeme amount of heat that is released into the athmosphere, but that is simply thought to be a byproduct. So much so that it actually changed the climate of the surrounding area and raised the tempeature by as much as 4 degrees. Lately there has been a push to close the facility but any thought has been addmidatly shut down by both the US and Australian Governments"

As a local - Cloncurry - resident, I would like to know what the hell he's talking about, and where I can get some of his stuff, 'cos it's obviously good quality...Johnmc (talk) 08:29, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Images

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Thuis article needs more photos and images. Can any locals help? ROxBo (talk) 15:38, 25 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Teri Mckillop steakhouse - real or fake?

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I just removed a mention of this steakhouse because I cannot find any evidence it exists, but maybe someone local can confirm? Kerry (talk) 08:51, 6 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Population and dwellings.

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Currently, the Infobox contains an unsupported claim that the population was 22,517 in June 2015, while the Demographics section says it was "22,013 housed in approx. 9,000 dwellings" (also unsupported). Both of these are wildly different from the 2011 census figures of jut 704 people in 317 dwellings. Can anybody explain the huge discrepancy? --Gronk Oz (talk) 07:41, 25 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Probably vandalism. Change them to the supported official figure. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 12:00, 25 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
it's not vandalism. See [2].
LGA vs locality issue again. The Drover's Wife (talk) 15:43, 25 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I got the following response from @Kerry Raymond: which seems to put the question to bed:--Gronk Oz (talk) 16:18, 25 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
If you look carefully at the 2011 census map for Mount Isa (state suburb) with pop about 700 (zoom in a lot) you will see there is a tiny cut out in the middle which is Mount Isa (urban locality) which has a pop of around 20,000 which is as you would expect. This approach appears inconsistent with other Qld places, no idea why. So I would use the larger pop for the article with corresponding citation. As for the estimated pop in 2015, ABS does publish estimates like this based on (goodness knows what but I am sure they know what they are doing). Local government websites often show the latest ABS estimates, particularly for places which have highly fluctuating pops as mining towns do. So there probably is a citation on ABS or local Govt website to support the 2015 estimate figure, but if you can't find it, just put the data back to the 2011 census data as per the above. If people want to put estimates in the article that's fine but they do need to cite their source. Kerry (talk) 09:58, 25 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
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Kabalulumana - tagged as dubious

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Well, there definitely is a Kabalulumana Hostel in Mount Isa so that is certainly verified. But I presume dubious tag refers to

"It is said that a lone prospector, John Campbell Miles, stumbled upon one of the world's richest deposits of copper, silver and zinc during his 1923 expedition into the Northern Territory, but many people do not know that he was taken to the deposits by a young aboriginal man by the name of Kabalulumana"

and I can see the issue here as I am not finding reliable citations to support it. Kerry (talk) 06:08, 25 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The content about Kabalulumana was added in this edit on 5 March 2014 by a user account that made only one edit (this one) and there was no citation provided. The date is interesting because when we look at the websites have this same information we find:
  • [3] dated by Google as Sep 14, 2016 (and appears to be paraphasing of the Wikipedia article)
  • [4] dated by Google as Mar 30, 2018 (copy of Wikipedia article content)
  • many others that appear to be identical or nearly identical to the Wikipedia article

So almost everything out there that tells this story is later than the Wikipedia content and/or obviously copied from it. But I found one exception, this 2012 archive of a website about the hostel which says

Mt Isa mineral deposits discovery were credited to Campbell Miles in 1923. The ‘real’ story was that the deposit was first discovered by an Aboriginal man by the name of Kabalulumana. Joe McGinness was 13 years old when he first heard the story of how the discovery came about. Kabalulumana was employed as a horse-tender for a travelling dentist from Cloncurry who made annual treks around the countryside, accompanied by Kabalulumana. It was during one of these excursions that Kabalulumana discovered iron ore and took samples back to Cloncurry where it was shown to different people. It is presumed that Campbell Miles was a person who showed interest and where he struck a bargain with Kabalulumana, that if he showed him the where abouts of the deposit, he in turn, would give a present of a horse and buggy. Miles was shown the area and he promptly pegged it as a mining lease, which is now commonly known as Mt. Isa. On the other hand, Kabalulumana became the proud owner of a horse and buggy. This story was told by Joe McGinness 14 Sept 1994.

Now Joe McGinness (1914-2003) was an Aboriginal Australian activist, so he heard this story in 1927 (13 years old), 4 years after the discovery in 1923. Now "heard this story" from an unstated source is pretty tenuous for verification. However, this article about Joe tells us:

Joe got his first paid job during the school holidays in 1926. (p.10) He erected oil stores for half an adult wage. (p.11) After Joe left school, the Northern Territory Protector Dr C.E Cook directed him to work as a handyman for a travelling salesman named Leonard Garland and his wife. (p.11) Joe was paid five shillings a week: three shillings of which went into the Department of Native Affairs’ Aboriginal Trust Fund, and two shilling of which he was given as pocket money. (p.11) Joe travelled with the Garlands over the Queensland border to Mount Isa, Burketown, Dajarra, Birdsville, and then down through South Australia to Adelaide

which, while not precise about the dates, it suggests that Joe McGinness was travelling through the Mount Isa area of Queensland in 1927 and more likely to hear such a story from a more direct source than if he was still in Darwin. Travelling dentists definitely existed in that area in that time, there are newspaper mentions of a dentist called Mr Minchinton who is variously in Cloncurry, Mckinlay and later Mt Isa (so it might have been him). Travelling salesmen and travelling dentists presumably used the same kinds of accommodation, and probably their Aboriginal offsiders were accommodated together too, so Joe McGinness does appear to be in the right time, the right place, and in the right company to have heard this story if it were true. On the other hand, I cannot find Leonard Garland in that time period (there is a Leonard Garland, a representative, in the records but not until the 1950s). But it still comes back to "if it's true". The story of the discovery would make a funnier story in a pub if there was Aboriginal too stupid to know the value of what he'd found that he'd trade the location for a horse and buggy (I'm sure "stupid Aboriginal" jokes were quite acceptable back then). If we are happy this is plausible, we certainly have a citation for the claim that "Joe McGinness tells the story that ..." but not a citation that it actually happened. What do others think? Kerry (talk) 07:20, 25 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Orphaned references in Mount Isa

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I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Mount Isa's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "Census2016":

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT⚡ 06:27, 28 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education assignment: ARCHY 319 Archaeology of Australia

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 25 March 2024 and 30 May 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Luluzulu1 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Luluzulu1 (talk) 06:19, 21 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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