Speaker 1: Hello, it's Stave O'Neill here to share a new true crime,
Speaker 1: well sort of podcast with you that I've made with
Speaker 1: a regular co host of the Debreuth, mister Bradford Oaks.
Speaker 1: We all know Oaksy. It's called Slippery Slope. You can
Speaker 1: listen here or search for it in your podcast app.
Speaker 1: It's a story of jealousy, aspiration, international relations, taking place
Speaker 1: mostly in Queensland's remote north central town of Mount iSER.
Speaker 1: Get the four episodes of Slippery Slope here every Wednesday,
Speaker 1: or search for it in your podcast app. Okay, hope
Speaker 1: you enjoy it. Here is episode one. Mount iSER, one
Speaker 1: of the most remote places in Australia, nay the world,
Speaker 1: smack bang in the middle of Queensland. They had it
Speaker 1: all pubs, cowboys, rodeo, twenty four hour machas, a massive mind.
Speaker 1: But something was missing.
Speaker 2: She said, I got to say they don't have real problems.
Speaker 3: You got problems.
Speaker 4: And he said, what the fuck is that?
Speaker 5: Some of them are screaming lizard crocodile, lizard crocodile.
Speaker 6: And a water slide just made sense.
Speaker 4: It was made in Turkey and we got a lot
Speaker 4: of flak off that too.
Speaker 2: There was a bit of an issue in the sus Canal.
Speaker 4: Like I thought everyone was having a crack.
Speaker 6: They're delaying and on purpose and they're just trying to
Speaker 6: get it after the election.
Speaker 5: Oh okay, of course this has happened to us in
Speaker 5: Mount isa What else would happen?
Speaker 7: Slippery Slope a true crime podcast about Mount iSER and
Speaker 7: the Missing Water Slide with Dave O'Neill and Brad Oaks.
Speaker 1: Well, Hello and welcome to a podcast. I'm Dave O'Neil.
Speaker 3: Hi, I'm Brado's.
Speaker 1: Now Brad tell everyone how we came across the story
Speaker 1: of Mount Isa and the Missing water Slide.
Speaker 8: Well, last year we were touring in northern Queensland. We
Speaker 8: were in cans and then we flew to Mount Isaac
Speaker 8: and we were picked up a channing person from the
Speaker 8: Mount isa Council, Erica Erica. She drove us around, showed
Speaker 8: us some very interesting sites and then told us this
Speaker 8: wonderful tale.
Speaker 1: Now you've been to man Isiser before, No, I'd never
Speaker 1: been there. Yeah, and what was your first impression?
Speaker 8: Is it in Australia? Yeah, it's it's a long while.
Speaker 1: It's very isolated for people that I know. It's in
Speaker 1: the middle of Queensland. It's a huge mining town.
Speaker 8: It's actually in Queensland, but it's closer to Darwin, yeah
Speaker 8: than it is to Brisbane.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's state capitol.
Speaker 1: I've been there a few times. I hosted the one
Speaker 1: hundred year celebration and I've been I've I've done a
Speaker 1: gagin in Julia Creek. I always really liked Mount iSER
Speaker 1: because very much a working town as opposed to a
Speaker 1: five O town. Most people live there and most people
Speaker 1: work in the mine or on the surrounding industries in
Speaker 1: the mines.
Speaker 8: I know, I think when I look at you, I
Speaker 8: think Western Queensland. You're like a stockland.
Speaker 1: So we heard of this story and we thought that
Speaker 1: is a great story, and so return to Mount Eyes
Speaker 1: that interviewed people. We're going to cover the whole story
Speaker 1: of this podcast.
Speaker 8: I just point out to the we didn't turn to
Speaker 8: each other, and this is a great story. It was
Speaker 8: a couple of weeks later after we got back, said you,
Speaker 8: I'm just fascinated by that story.
Speaker 1: You went me too, and we both be into rooms
Speaker 1: in Mount Eyes and individually googled and could find nothing
Speaker 1: about it. There was nothing about this water slide. So
Speaker 1: we thought this is a great story. Well, I mean
Speaker 1: it's interesting people that live there have an opinion on
Speaker 1: Mount Eiser. Obviously. Let's hear from Kim Coglan. She's the
Speaker 1: sister now, she's been on council forever. Kim, what's your
Speaker 1: what's your description of Mount iSER?
Speaker 3: Hard? Rugged? Hot?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a very quick summation, but that kind of
Speaker 1: does sum it up.
Speaker 9: It is.
Speaker 1: I think it is a hard place to live, Brad.
Speaker 8: In terms of hard, it was thirty one degrees when
Speaker 8: we're in Cans the day before.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but that's humid heat.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: And then when we landed at eight thirty in the
Speaker 8: morning in Mount Isaac, it was already thirty one degrees Yeah,
Speaker 8: that's more like pizza oven heat.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was like a pizza oven, and it got
Speaker 1: hotder and hotter. Daniel Slade's also she was on the council,
Speaker 1: she was a mayor. I met her when I hosted
Speaker 1: one hundred year celebration. She's not a counselor anymore. Growing
Speaker 1: up in maunt isa it.
Speaker 6: Was never my intention to stay here. It grows on
Speaker 6: you without you realizing. When I was left school, I
Speaker 6: was out of here. There's no doubt about it, and
Speaker 6: I met people who not just become friends, but have
Speaker 6: become lifelong friends, and people who would you know, bury
Speaker 6: a body for you. Basically, you know these people we've
Speaker 6: grown up together. And I can't explain that sort of
Speaker 6: feeling of community that man Isa has. And maybe it's
Speaker 6: because we're so isolated of course this area.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know this until I went there. Rob
Speaker 1: Catter is the local member for the State Parliament. Now
Speaker 1: that's Bob Catter's son. You know, we had a son.
Speaker 3: I knew he had a son.
Speaker 8: I love the fact that the differential is just well,
Speaker 8: Bob Catter, who's a very colorful Australian federal politicians.
Speaker 1: Being there forever to in Parliament, he has.
Speaker 8: Been around and is a very strong advocate for Northern Queensland.
Speaker 8: To differentiate between his colorful personality, his son is Rob
Speaker 8: rather than Bob.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so funny and it's just one letter, the
Speaker 1: difference between Rob and Bob.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it just clears it up straight away.
Speaker 1: The people that don't know who Bob Cattery is. This
Speaker 1: is his famous quote on the news when they're I
Speaker 1: think I'm talking about gay marriage, weren't they?
Speaker 3: It was It's about the referendum.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and just hear how it takes a turn. It's
Speaker 1: only twenty seconds. But this will this will sum up
Speaker 1: Bob Catter.
Speaker 10: People are titled to the sexual proclimities. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 10: let there be a thousand blossoms blooms. So but I
Speaker 10: ain't spending any time warrant.
Speaker 3: Of course.
Speaker 10: In the meantime, every three months a person's torn to
Speaker 10: pieces by a crocodile.
Speaker 1: And North Queensland there we go torn to pieces by
Speaker 1: a crocodile.
Speaker 3: Do yourself a favor too.
Speaker 8: If you want to google that, just type in Bobcatter
Speaker 8: crocodiles and you will see it's a twenty second clip.
Speaker 3: His face change halfway through that.
Speaker 1: It's unbelievable and that has become famous around the world.
Speaker 1: But that's not Rob Catter.
Speaker 3: No, Rob's a lot more to day.
Speaker 1: Rob Catter actually lives in man Isa. He's got an officer,
Speaker 1: he's got a house that he's got a family there.
Speaker 8: He's the member for that area, yes, and which must
Speaker 8: be a very big state of lectionship.
Speaker 1: He's got a plane that he flies around which he
Speaker 1: famolessly didn't put the landing thing down and skid it
Speaker 1: on the tarmac. I do that all the time in
Speaker 1: your plane. Let's hear from Rob catter Man.
Speaker 2: Isser is a diamond and rough.
Speaker 11: It's very hard to see it's beauty and it's value
Speaker 11: and character on the surface, but it doesn't when you
Speaker 11: open it up and get inside.
Speaker 2: It's just it's great and gets holdier.
Speaker 3: It's hard to leave.
Speaker 1: He sounds to be like a little bit. There is
Speaker 1: a real phenomena where people come brand and they just stay. Yeah,
Speaker 1: did you have any desire to stay?
Speaker 8: No, it was it was a bit too hot for me,
Speaker 8: given that we did a gig there that I pretty
Speaker 8: much shot.
Speaker 3: My bolt there.
Speaker 8: You know, a lot of the people from the region
Speaker 8: were there, so after that, it's pretty much I'll just
Speaker 8: be picking up papers for something to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no gigs there, basically, is what you're saying.
Speaker 8: But I could see, like remember how the sunsets were
Speaker 8: absolutely beautiful, beautiful and striking. It had that kind of
Speaker 8: thing too, which I think it might be proximate to
Speaker 8: a desert, and so it has that nighttime that's stillness,
Speaker 8: which is you know, really kind of commensurate with the
Speaker 8: Australian outback.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is a desert, isn't it.
Speaker 3: I think it is, So what's the desert?
Speaker 1: Let's hear a bit more from Rob Catater talking about
Speaker 1: how it's very hard to leave the place.
Speaker 2: For me, I'm a good working example.
Speaker 11: I came out with a two or three year plan
Speaker 11: twenty one years ago, thinking yeah, just make some money.
Speaker 11: And then you start to go, well, what am I
Speaker 11: going to improve if I go back to the coast?
Speaker 11: If I go backsely, what am I.
Speaker 3: Going to improve?
Speaker 11: Because I've got a good friendship base here, We've got
Speaker 11: a good house, I've got a job, we got.
Speaker 2: Enough money to holiday at the end of the year.
Speaker 11: I think a lot of people have that set in
Speaker 11: the head, like I've got to get back to Nusia.
Speaker 11: I've got to get back to Brisbane and Gold Coast.
Speaker 11: And then you start to say, well, why, you know,
Speaker 11: what was better in your life there? And it's in
Speaker 11: It's really interesting the amount of people that move away.
Speaker 11: And I don't want to say with their tail between
Speaker 11: their legs, but it's usually sort of in a good way.
Speaker 11: They come out and say, you know what, I just
Speaker 11: I just I couldn't replicate the same friendships and community
Speaker 11: that I had.
Speaker 1: Here think about man eyes that no one's mentioned. It
Speaker 1: is the mine. It is quite remarkable to go to
Speaker 1: a mining town where the mine is right there in
Speaker 1: the middle of the town, right there.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I've been a cup early and the mine's outside.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a pit too.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 8: And you know, of course, growing up in Victoria there's
Speaker 8: the open Cup mine in the Gippsland region around more
Speaker 8: Lawn and that's out of town. But this is really
Speaker 8: strike here. It's just in fact. The town I believe,
Speaker 8: is divided into mind side and town side.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, and mind side used to be a bit posh,
Speaker 1: I believe back because of course it would be posh,
Speaker 1: because if you lived on the mind side, you go,
Speaker 1: I'll just grab some rubies from my mind. Well, it's
Speaker 1: interesting because when I first went there, I could not
Speaker 1: believe I could look at the motel. I heard a
Speaker 1: horn blasting and it was the mine. I looked at
Speaker 1: the motel window and there it was right there.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So first impressions are really interesting with Mount Isa. Let's
Speaker 1: hear from Corgo again, the counselor talking about someone's first impression.
Speaker 4: Tell this story a fuller cum into Mount iSER. Never
Speaker 4: been to mound iSER in his life. He went to
Speaker 4: town He's rugby club. He was drinking there all afternoon
Speaker 4: and I had to take him. He was staying at
Speaker 4: the Berkeley Hotel, so I was taking him to the
Speaker 4: Barkley Hotel and I was going across the Big Bridge
Speaker 4: and at night, when the mines is lit up, it
Speaker 4: looks like a shipliner. And I remember we were going
Speaker 4: across the Big Bridge and he was talking and next
Speaker 4: minute he looked and he said, what the fuck is that?
Speaker 4: And I said what are you talking about? Because I
Speaker 4: didn't know what he was going on about. And he
Speaker 4: was in the car horrified, and I said, what are
Speaker 4: you He said what's that? And I said it's the
Speaker 4: mine and he was absolutely astounded. He said, but it's
Speaker 4: right there, and I said, yeah, so we we don't
Speaker 4: know anything different. But for people coming into Mount Isa,
Speaker 4: I mean you drive down the Barkley Highway and you know,
Speaker 4: you go up Railway Avenue and there's this mine, like
Speaker 4: the whole mine is there. Like it's just it's unheard
Speaker 4: of because all other places in Australia the mine's there,
Speaker 4: but the town's away. But you go back to when
Speaker 4: it was discovered I mean you had to be right
Speaker 4: near the mine, so you used to have mine side
Speaker 4: and town side.
Speaker 1: The mines was first, and then mant isa Do you
Speaker 1: know how they how was discovered? How man Isaac came
Speaker 1: to be.
Speaker 8: I'm strongly paraphrasing here, so you know, feel free to
Speaker 8: equate me. But my understanding was that there was some
Speaker 8: prospectors just moving.
Speaker 3: Through the area.
Speaker 8: One of them horses that's something in its foot, yeah, hoof,
Speaker 8: and they turned it over and it was a big
Speaker 8: lump of insert precious metal here, which begs the question
Speaker 8: because we talk about how the town to be called
Speaker 8: Mount Eliza, but I think I should have been named
Speaker 8: after that horse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, like Malli Mount Trigger, Mount Nelly, because
Speaker 1: of course the indigenous people were there first, of course,
Speaker 1: and they're part of Ount Eyes, of course. And it
Speaker 1: used to be it was known for what sort of thing.
Speaker 3: I believe it was known as the training.
Speaker 8: It was well known for the quality of the stone
Speaker 8: axes that were made in the region, right, which again
Speaker 8: would point towards them using really good minerals the materials.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that they're now mine mineral. Congo seems to
Speaker 1: know what she's talking about when it comes with the
Speaker 1: history of Mount Isa.
Speaker 4: So the story goes, the horse got a rock thing
Speaker 4: in his hoof and he saw it. A lot of
Speaker 4: them are prospectors at the time, and from there like
Speaker 4: all the prospectors come out, but John Campbell Miles laid
Speaker 4: claim to it first. And there's a long, long history
Speaker 4: of miners coming here. So I just know that my
Speaker 4: great grandfather was the pioneer that discovered, like was with
Speaker 4: John Miles. Then my father was a shift boss in
Speaker 4: the mines, and then like I worked in the mines.
Speaker 1: The miners had several owners over the years. Well, the
Speaker 1: vibe I get current owners is not a good relationship,
Speaker 1: I believe.
Speaker 8: No, I believe it started out as Mount Eyes of mining. Yes,
Speaker 8: and for years you would see that in the stocks pages. Yes,
Speaker 8: you know m I am was synonymous. You know, it
Speaker 8: was something with b HP. It's one of the most
Speaker 8: productive mining areas in the world in terms of its size,
Speaker 8: and it's now falling into the hands of what did
Speaker 8: they say, bean counters encounters economers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually put the question to Rob Catter let's
Speaker 1: have a listen.
Speaker 11: I'd say really bad. It was off the charts good.
Speaker 11: When I sort of first moved here and it was
Speaker 11: Mount Eyes and mines. They used to have a Christmas party.
Speaker 11: I'm told before my time they had a Christmas party
Speaker 11: in every kid in town. Every kid in town, regardless
Speaker 11: where their parents worked at the mine as not got
Speaker 11: Christmas present.
Speaker 2: And the friends of mine, like who my age, were
Speaker 2: parted that. They said, mate, they.
Speaker 11: Weren't little presents, like they went like a decent bloody toy.
Speaker 11: And you know, they did up sports fields and you know,
Speaker 11: helped people into housing and helped develop housing suburbs and
Speaker 11: really invested in creating a good livable city and keeping
Speaker 11: fi FO out and making a permanent workforce. And you
Speaker 11: know Extrata came in, which was the precursor to Glencore,
Speaker 11: and it's just completely different. There's a lot of animosity
Speaker 11: towards the mine now, I'd say because they do it.
Speaker 11: They're just commercially focused and have that same community focus.
Speaker 1: They're not mining them the money people, aren't.
Speaker 11: They from the global commodity traders where one of one
Speaker 11: hundred and fifty or more minds are in the world
Speaker 11: where respecting the respeca dust to them and they work
Speaker 11: off commodity prices and high out, they'd require higher returns,
Speaker 11: and a lot of other mining companies do around the place,
Speaker 11: so they'll shut something down before someone else would.
Speaker 4: And they're not miners, they're economists.
Speaker 1: Are the bankers?
Speaker 4: Yeah, and like it's yeah, so I think that's where
Speaker 4: that's where the trouble is. We need a mining company
Speaker 4: to buy out Mount Eyes.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Hello, so I'm bringing you early.
Speaker 8: I've realized we've got Troy rolling from the Northwest Weekly.
Speaker 1: Hell a, Troy, I'm not too bad. Tell us what's
Speaker 1: your relationship with Mount Isaac? You there when you were
Speaker 1: a younger man?
Speaker 3: Is that right?
Speaker 9: Ah, Yeah, that's right. I started my journalism cadet ship
Speaker 9: in Mount ISAA maybe ten to fifteen years ago, and
Speaker 9: then I went off and did other things in media,
Speaker 9: and then a friend of mine started the newspaper up
Speaker 9: here again last year, and so yeah, here I am.
Speaker 1: Troy showed me around Mount Isaac when he said he
Speaker 1: went off and did other things. Bravaty worked for a
Speaker 1: very famous politician. But we're not going to interview me
Speaker 1: about that, right, All right?
Speaker 3: Did you ever think you'd go back there?
Speaker 8: I don't know.
Speaker 9: It's one of those places where people always say they
Speaker 9: come back. It's like a boomerang sort of town. People
Speaker 9: keep coming back, so when you actually walk down the
Speaker 9: street and people remember you, they're not always surprised to
Speaker 9: see that you've come back.
Speaker 8: To be honest, it's not like a jail town where
Speaker 8: people are, oh, you've been way did five to seven
Speaker 8: when I.
Speaker 1: Was talking to you. The relationship between Mount Is and
Speaker 1: the mine is really interesting because they're kind of proud
Speaker 1: of the mine, aren't they.
Speaker 9: Oh, yeah, this place is very very pro mining, so
Speaker 9: because it's basically a gigantic mine with a town wrapped
Speaker 9: around it in.
Speaker 3: The middle of nowhere.
Speaker 9: So I mean the mine was here before the town
Speaker 9: as well. So if you'd be anti mining in Mount
Speaker 9: Iy you would be very lonely.
Speaker 1: And now tell us about is part of the mind
Speaker 1: shutting down?
Speaker 8: Soon?
Speaker 10: It is?
Speaker 9: Yeah, So later this year they'll have the underground section,
Speaker 9: which is actually there's like hundreds of kilometers of underground
Speaker 9: mine there that they extract copper from. And well, that
Speaker 9: whole section is closing down. So it's somewhere between six
Speaker 9: hundred and twelve hundred jobs, which is about ten percent
Speaker 9: of the entire workforce in Mount Is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and what's the vibe about that that's obviously a
Speaker 1: bad thing.
Speaker 9: Oh yeah, yeah, I mean it's obviously people don't like
Speaker 9: seeing the mines closed. There's obviously people that think that
Speaker 9: it should stay open. There's other people that say that
Speaker 9: what a mine does it runs out of stuff. There's
Speaker 9: other things on the horizon though that There's always minds
Speaker 9: being proposed out here as well, so it's not just
Speaker 9: the one manners of mine. There's quite a lot of
Speaker 9: mining production all around the area.
Speaker 8: To be honest, has it run out of stuff or
Speaker 8: is it an economic decision?
Speaker 9: Depends what you ask. If you ask the company Glencore,
Speaker 9: they'll tell you that they've basically just depleted the resource.
Speaker 9: So they just it's just not economical for them to
Speaker 9: get it out anymore. They're just closing it. Well, they're
Speaker 9: going to restart and open cut mine over the top
Speaker 9: of it in the next few years.
Speaker 1: Well, that'll create more jobs, won't it.
Speaker 3: It will.
Speaker 9: Yeah, they're not as many jobs as what is currently
Speaker 9: in the underground section, but it will create new jobs.
Speaker 9: The thing is that mine hasn't been fully sort of
Speaker 9: signed off on yet. They haven't made a final investment decision,
Speaker 9: so just have to wait and see.
Speaker 8: And there's a resistance to five zoo there as well, too,
Speaker 8: isn't there that? Is there a concern that these jobs
Speaker 8: will be allocated at locals or.
Speaker 9: Yeah, well that's always the big battle out here in
Speaker 9: any mining town, is that. Yeah, you get the guys
Speaker 9: that fly in and fly out, and they live in
Speaker 9: camps or they live on accommodation, and you know, they
Speaker 9: don't spend outside from sort of buying beer and playing
Speaker 9: the pokey's, they don't really commit to the town very much.
Speaker 1: I think it was you telling me, was it Glenko
Speaker 1: who changed the shift time so it went from eight
Speaker 1: hours to a different twelve hour shift? Was that right?
Speaker 9: It was the previous company that owned the mine before Glencore,
Speaker 9: so extrata they extended from eight to twelve hour shifts.
Speaker 9: And if you listen to longtime locals, y'or two, it
Speaker 9: really did take a lot of the heart out of
Speaker 9: a lot of the community organizations, particularly because you know,
Speaker 9: I don't know if you guys have ever worked a
Speaker 9: twelve hour shift, but you're pretty buggered by the end
Speaker 9: of it.
Speaker 1: Hang On, hang on, hang on, hang on, Troy, you're
Speaker 1: asking two comedians if they've ever worked a twelve hour shift.
Speaker 3: Answers, No, we did drive them Durham back we went.
Speaker 1: You're right, once you finished a twelve hour shift in
Speaker 1: the physical job, you can't go to tennis or soccer
Speaker 1: practice your knack.
Speaker 8: It is that three ships down the two or is
Speaker 8: that two shifts and closing down?
Speaker 9: It's two ships now.
Speaker 1: But of course, with the history of the mind when
Speaker 1: we were up there, Erika showed us the underground hospital,
Speaker 1: which was a feature in World War Two. The miners
Speaker 1: built that, didn't they.
Speaker 9: My understanding is that Northern Australia was pretty undeveloped back then.
Speaker 9: The war was used to try and build highways and
Speaker 9: they built airstrips and in case the Japanese invaded, So
Speaker 9: I think out here was obviously going to be a
Speaker 9: place that soldiers were going to fall back to if
Speaker 9: the Japanese ever did come down, and so they needed
Speaker 9: a hospital to be able to put injured soldiers in
Speaker 9: and all the rest of us. There's like a bunch
Speaker 9: of tunnels built into the side of a mountain out
Speaker 9: here that that was a hospital.
Speaker 8: We visited that amazing looking at their history too, it
Speaker 8: would have been a nice, big fat juicy target for
Speaker 8: the Japanese Imperial Army because it was in fact after
Speaker 8: the bombing of Darwin. I think that was an influence
Speaker 8: where they said, well, we have to have a hospital,
Speaker 8: it's safe.
Speaker 3: And on top of that, there.
Speaker 8: Was the Brisbane line, which was basically, we will defend
Speaker 8: everything from Brisbane back, so that, you know, the people
Speaker 8: might have actually felt like they were being isolated there.
Speaker 9: There were a lot of American soldiers in man Isa
Speaker 9: during the war too, and they used to get into
Speaker 9: fights with the miners and go down to the river
Speaker 9: bank and sort it all out.
Speaker 1: You live in Mount Isaa, you work there. Talking about
Speaker 1: the lack of the things for young people to do,
Speaker 1: is that an issue you reckon?
Speaker 9: Well, we're in the middle of nowhere, So if you
Speaker 9: don't like what Manasa has to offer, you don't have
Speaker 9: much else to choose from. I guess it just depends
Speaker 9: what you like to do. Because we've got Lake Mundaro,
Speaker 9: which is, without sounding like a tourist pamphlet, there's you know,
Speaker 9: Lake Mundara is a pretty big it's the water source,
Speaker 9: but they've turned into a big, nice lake where people
Speaker 9: go fishing and boating and stuff. And then it's a
Speaker 9: pretty multicultural place as well, as much as people probably
Speaker 9: don't realize. So there's a lot of good restaurants and
Speaker 9: stuff as well. So I don't mind it, but I
Speaker 9: guess it just depends, you know, if you're wanting to
Speaker 9: go and see Metallica on the weekend or something, you're
Speaker 9: not going to be doing that. From Mount Eyes on what.
Speaker 3: An appropriate thing in a mining town.
Speaker 1: Policat Isa he Troy, thanks for talking to us.
Speaker 3: No problem, Well, apart.
Speaker 1: From all the issues with the mind, so that part
Speaker 1: of the mind's closing down. There is this whole problem
Speaker 1: with the young people and a lack of things for
Speaker 1: the kids to do.
Speaker 8: Brad, there is, but the relationships are strong. I think
Speaker 8: Danielle was talking before. I think she said something like
Speaker 8: people have got your back. People would bury your body
Speaker 8: for you. Basically, Okay, So not a good idea in
Speaker 8: a mining town. Yeah, probably a better way to get
Speaker 8: rid of it. It kind of speaks to firm friends.
Speaker 8: And Rob Catter said the same, how close these people
Speaker 8: are and so even if you don't have kids, you're
Speaker 8: concerned about the issues for the chi're.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but there is. I mean, there's lots of sporting clubs.
Speaker 1: There is a lack of the things for the kids.
Speaker 1: Let's hear from Rob Catder.
Speaker 2: Oh well, you know it was really nice.
Speaker 11: Once a politician in Brisbane and lady had come up
Speaker 11: to me and said, Robert, we just want to say
Speaker 11: to you. I spent a few days out in the
Speaker 11: committee here in Mount ISAA getting across some of the
Speaker 11: issues here. And she said, you know, I get a
Speaker 11: lot of people from my office in Brisbane.
Speaker 2: She said, I got to say they don't have real problems.
Speaker 11: You've got problems if you wanted to take education, health,
Speaker 11: population decline, industry risk and industry growth.
Speaker 2: And she's just about every metric we could say.
Speaker 11: We've got the alcoholism, social disruption, crime, you could put
Speaker 11: in real negative slant on it. But krikey, we still
Speaker 11: love being here.
Speaker 4: Oh look this is look. And I'll speak very bluntly
Speaker 4: with you. You know, people say, oh, there's nothing to do,
Speaker 4: rah rah, Well hang on a minute, Like we shouldn't
Speaker 4: have to put on something for you to do. You
Speaker 4: can still like we've got a skate park here, we've
Speaker 4: got a pump track. We've got like thirteen parks or something,
Speaker 4: and nearly all of them have got play equipment in it,
Speaker 4: or how about you just go get your mate and
Speaker 4: get on a bike and ride around for a little bit.
Speaker 4: You know, not break into houses or anything, but you know,
Speaker 4: just ride around on your bikes. And my son especially
Speaker 4: was never without a ball in his hand. He'd kick
Speaker 4: a ball around or him and his mates would go,
Speaker 4: you know and do their stuff. So I still think
Speaker 4: there's a lot to do in Mount isab Igo.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it mean she makes a good point. I
Speaker 1: mean we didn't have much. I mean we were in Melbourne,
Speaker 1: but we didn't have that much growing up as kids
Speaker 1: to entertain ourselves, did we know?
Speaker 8: And in fact you talk about just a digress, you're
Speaker 8: talking about it having a ball in your hand. Now,
Speaker 8: I believe in your street there was somebody who moved out.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, we're talking about Johnny Firthy who plays for
Speaker 1: the NBA. Now, the kid that I practically raised cross
Speaker 1: the road and he used to play basketball the time
Speaker 1: with the school at the local clubs and then he
Speaker 1: got signed up for the NBA.
Speaker 8: It's the same in Central Australia. And I was talking
Speaker 8: to a football or Rubert patheris ex Collingwood player who
Speaker 8: went up and did some development of work in the
Speaker 8: central part of the Northern Cheritory and I said to him,
Speaker 8: do you think that Indigenous people are better at football?
Speaker 8: He said he felt that it misses his opinion. He
Speaker 8: felt that it was because they have a ball in
Speaker 8: their hand from the moment they can walk, really they
Speaker 8: have a footy or they're having a game of footy,
Speaker 8: and so.
Speaker 1: That because it's cheap entertainment, it is.
Speaker 8: And he said, to be eighty kids playing forty on
Speaker 8: each side playing footy. I'm just really intrigued by how
Speaker 8: important a ball is.
Speaker 3: He said that by the time.
Speaker 8: You get to teenage years, you've seen every bounce to
Speaker 8: that ball, and that's what makes you ten thousand hour experts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's why the theory that you need
Speaker 1: ten thousand hours of practicing your chosen field, like us
Speaker 1: in standup comedy, exactly ten thousand hours. And I bounced
Speaker 1: a lot of balls done. So you've got all the
Speaker 1: sporting clubs up there. You've got the forty, the cricket,
Speaker 1: they've got tennis in Mount Eyeser, all sorts of sports.
Speaker 3: Body bearing, yeah.
Speaker 1: The body bearing, the soccer cot.
Speaker 3: The body finding club.
Speaker 1: They've got a great pool up there, but this you
Speaker 1: would hope. Okay, a big swim center outdoors and outdoor
Speaker 1: swim center there right near the mine. Actually it's right
Speaker 1: next to the mine. But the thing is the example
Speaker 1: we're about to play illustrates how bored the kids are
Speaker 1: a mount eyes are well. Let's shay she runs the
Speaker 1: pool there, she runs the swim center. Let her tell
Speaker 1: the story.
Speaker 5: A couple of years ago we had some crocodiles in
Speaker 5: the pool as well. Had little turtle last year also,
Speaker 5: not that the turtle was too bad, but the crocodiles
Speaker 5: were a bit more of a feat to get out.
Speaker 5: Someone had been trapping them out at the lake and
Speaker 5: brought them in overnight and threw them over the fence,
Speaker 5: and they've gone into the water. I opened the pool normal,
Speaker 5: it was pitch black, spotlights were on. I did my
Speaker 5: walk around and check. But the crocodiles were obviously in
Speaker 5: the corners in the shadow. Early in the morning, just dormant.
Speaker 5: And then as the water started churning up, we had
Speaker 5: an aquaerobics class on. There was music pumping and everything
Speaker 5: was going. They started to move around and we don't
Speaker 5: know whether they wanted to join in or just escape
Speaker 5: the place fast. They looked pretty nervous and pretty scared
Speaker 5: at first. To be honest, I don't know who was
Speaker 5: more scared. A couple of people in the class started
Speaker 5: screaming and running and didn't really know what was going
Speaker 5: on at first until some of them were screaming lizard, crocodile, lizard, crocodile,
Speaker 5: And yeah, it went from there. So we could scoop
Speaker 5: some out with the buckets. They were only little babies.
Speaker 5: Some of them were a little bit faster, and we
Speaker 5: had to get one of the ladies we know quite
Speaker 5: well from the class. Actually, her husband came down. He's
Speaker 5: a big fishing fella, and he brought cast nets and
Speaker 5: that's how we got them.
Speaker 8: Okay, so I just want to point out your share
Speaker 8: and I can imagine that's that's a problem. But I've
Speaker 8: seen a lizard and I've seen a crocodile, and we're
Speaker 8: talking a difference in meters.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I think there were baby crocodiles, but
Speaker 1: they were still scary.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I know, they they were very different. I believe
Speaker 8: that they probably were similar about twenty million billion years ago, yes,
Speaker 8: but they branched out.
Speaker 1: Well, it's kind of like saying Wallaby kangaroo. Wellby kangaroo,
Speaker 1: isn't it?
Speaker 3: Is it now?
Speaker 8: I felt like it's more like saying Wallaby horsell. Okay,
Speaker 8: that's probably what Bob Catta was talking about. Yes, I
Speaker 8: mean being ripped apart over a series of.
Speaker 1: Days in the swimming pool in Mount Isa. Well, anyway,
Speaker 1: that's the thing about Man Isa. We're getting to the
Speaker 1: water slide now because the kids are so bored they're
Speaker 1: putting crocodiles in the pool. Even though she didn't say
Speaker 1: they were kids in that quote, but she told me
Speaker 1: later they were kids that did it. Let's cross the
Speaker 1: Danniel Sligh the former and because there used to be
Speaker 1: a bread I don't know if you know that there
Speaker 1: used to be a water slide in Mount iSER.
Speaker 3: No, I did not know that.
Speaker 2: For a while.
Speaker 6: When I was a kid here we had a water slide.
Speaker 6: Is that quite a ride on my bike, to be honest.
Speaker 6: But I would ride out there, do the water slide
Speaker 6: and have the time of my life. And of course
Speaker 6: it was a private entity and it went broke, all
Speaker 6: closed down. And the one thing that I realized as
Speaker 6: a resident let alone the mayor, is we need more
Speaker 6: fun things for kids to do, especially the older kids.
Speaker 6: You know, we're talking you of crime and lots of
Speaker 6: things happening. You need to keep these kids engaged, lots
Speaker 6: of fun things to do. A water slide just made sense,
Speaker 6: you know.
Speaker 1: There we have it. Someone had suggested a water slide
Speaker 1: for Mount iSER. So we get to the start of
Speaker 1: the story bra.
Speaker 3: All right, and so they didn't have that water slide.
Speaker 8: The another ones we had with kids, we just had
Speaker 8: slipping slide. They had a big bit of plastic.
Speaker 1: A dad would put ten pegs in the plastic and
Speaker 1: also be near the road. We used to do one
Speaker 1: on the nature trip and you could often go into
Speaker 1: the driveway.
Speaker 8: Or the road and if you can put a little
Speaker 8: bit of desurger urgence on it and if you slid
Speaker 8: onto that cooch grass there was next to your's skim
Speaker 8: for this.
Speaker 1: So we've come to the end of the first episode.
Speaker 1: So Mount Isa they're going to get a water slide. Well,
Speaker 1: it's been proposed, but there's quite a few hurdles to
Speaker 1: cover and the incident occurs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't just go and buy one at Clark Rubber, No.
Speaker 1: You don't. It's a whole thing. Good intentions. Look listen
Speaker 1: to the next week because something goes wrong.
Speaker 6: Queensland Government had gone to all the mines in Queensland
Speaker 6: and said we want some money from you. Special meeting
Speaker 6: of man Isser City Council. It was my idea for
Speaker 6: the water slide, but it's not big enough.
Speaker 7: Slippery Slope a true crime podcast about maunt iSER and
Speaker 7: the missing water slide with Dave O'Neill and Bredos.
Speaker 1: Slippery Slope is written and hosted by Dave O'Neill and Bradoaks.
Speaker 1: Original music created by Itinerant Productions. Cheer their website. There's
Speaker 1: some great stuff there. Ww dot Itinerant Production dot com,
Speaker 1: editing by Courtney Carthy, published by Neely Media. Thank you
Speaker 1: to all the guests involved in the making of Slippery
Speaker 1: Slope in this episode, Kim Cogland, Daniel Sleigh, Troy Railing,
Speaker 1: Robcatter and Shade Donovan at the pool. Find more information
Speaker 1: in the episode notes or at nearly dot com dot au.
Speaker 1: And thanks to the people of Mount iSER.