I had envisaged a nicer place to celebrate Austin’s big Birthday than this! But all Austin cared about was that he finally could apply for a Seniors Card after hiding behind my back at the ticket offices for too long! Of course I had heard every old woman and cougar joke over the last 38 years, and was determined to celebrate this day in spite of Austin wanting the day to just silently slip away. Well he could not deny enjoying all the lovely messages from his daughters, friends and some special voice messages from our beautiful grandson, Jaxon! 
Mount Isa is another example of a town created by a mining company after silver and lead ore was discovered in 1927. First the mining company erected tents under wooden shelters and later more permanent dwellings for its workers.
Having seen a lot of mines at different locations, we decided to spend Austin’s birthday above ground. Our first port of call was an Outback shop to get Austin’s birthday present: a real Akubra hat for a “real Aussie man”! After that our sight seeing consisted of finding a Repco and a Bunnings, both unfortunately present in Mount Isa. Of course Austin had his cake and ate it too! But finding a decent restaurant for an appropriate birthday dinner was quite an unsuccessful undertaking! We ended up in a rather mediocre Chinese.
Anyhow, we both survived and had an enjoyable day. And there was always the “Underground Hospital” we visited the next day - just in case. This hospital was built with the help of the mines after the Japanese bombed Darwin in WWII. It was meant to provide safer patient care and to deal with casualties of a possible attack. Luckily this never eventuated and today this hospital is a museum filled with hospital equipment and theatre tools of the early 20th century, and a few skeletons.
As antiquated as these items might have seemed, we delved into much, much older “bones” at the Riversleigh Fossil Centre.
Riversleigh is near Lawn Hill and has been a major fossil excavation site for the last 40 years. On over 300 sites of the area 500 new species of fauna have been discovered here, never before seen anywhere else in the world. We toured the laboratory where fossils are processed down to even the minute gravel identified as carnivorous ghost bat poo, in which teeth and bones of ancient creatures can be found looking through the microscope.
We heard amazing stories about “big birds” reaching 4 metres in heights, carnivorous kangaroos, tree climbing crocodiles and a giant wombat, the Diprotodon. All was encased in Cambrian limestone for the last 30-50 million years. Fascinating stuff!
Anyhow, it made even “old Aussie” feel young!
