It is fairly well documented the lone prospector, John Campbell Miles, happened across one of the world's richest deposits of copper, zinc and silver during his 1923 expedition to the Northern territory. But not many people know where he got the name for the town.
Did Miles name the town after Mt. Ida in Western Australia or did he name it after his niece Isabel?
If you ask some residents they will say the city was named after Mount Ida in Western Australia, with many swearing that a family member or someone close to them had told them so, and that that was the correct rendition.
Others will say that the town was named after Miles’ niece, Isabel (generally accepted spelling in this case), and they also believe that they are 100% correct.
So which is the correct version?
A story in MIMAG read ‘ISA if found … the woman after whom Mount Isa was named, has been found; she is Mrs Isobel Tracey of Murrumbeena, Melbourne.’
In the article, Mrs A P Beard (wife of Mr A. P. Beard known as ‘Neane’ and who was the first Controller of Accounts for Mount Isa Mines Limited) read from Mrs Tracey’s letter in which she advised that indeed Uncle Campbell’s lease and the town was named Mount Isa after herself.
Mrs Tracey wrote, “your interview with Norm Banks of the ABC Radio was most interesting. We have heard and read so many different stories – yours was the only correct one!”
However, Gordon Sheldon in his book ‘Industrial Siege’ claimed Cam Miles (as John Campbell Miles was known to family and immediate friends) staked his claim and called the craggy hill ‘Mount Isa’, after the Western Australian gold mine ‘Mount Ida’.
For many years after that Sheldon continued to write that ‘the accepted story was that [Miles] named the town after his niece, Isabelle.’ But in his old age Miles denied this, and stuck to the more realistic truth.
Mount Isa Mines Limited has endorsed the myth of the town having been named after Mount Ida, and you can see proof if that in their paper ‘A Short History of the Company’.
When he North West Star commemorated Mount Isa’s golden jubilee in 1973 the myth started gaining momentum. In the Star’s lift out piece ‘Mount Isa’s Golden Jubilee - The Pioneering Years’ yet another version of the naming of the town came to light.
The writer stated that ‘[Miles] named his field after Mount Isa, a gold field in Western Australia, and simply changed the D to an S because he liked the sound of he name.’
Contrary to the claims, Geoffrey Blainey wrote in his book, Mines in the Spinifex ‘it was on one of these visits to Cloncurry that Miles named the field.
He continued “asked by Warden Dunlop what he would call his prospecting leases, he pondered for a moment and thought of Mount Ida, the West Australian goldfield of which Moses Rowlands had talked incessantly as they rode their bikes across the plains from Broken Hill.
No, he’d call it Mount Isa, and the name of his lease became the name of the field.”
Further on, Blainey acknowledged that “it was invariably written that Miles had in mind a sister or niece named Isobelle, and in fact one of his nieces has a similar name.
But her name is Isobel, and her claim that the mine was named in her honour was laughingly denied by John Campbell Miles himself”.
And contrary to popular belief Cam told Blainey he had never been to Mount Ida let alone Western Australia but rather he called the new lease Mount Isa, as he had said he liked the sound of the name.
As for the abbreviated form of mountain (Mt.) when giving name to a very large, high and steep hill - as in Mt. Everest - belies the description of the craggy outcrop that Miles saw in the hills of the Selwyn Ranges.
Yet another question to consider, if Mount Isa Mines can proudly and rightly identify themselves with the full ‘Mount’ why do other people, authorities and the national broadcaster insist on the ‘Mt.’ form when referring to Mount Isa.
So the conundrum continues as to the correct spelling of the city name – is it Mt. Isa or Mount Isa?
It would bode the community well to copy the actions of Mr. A. P. Beard (Mount Isa Mines Limited, Controller of Accounts) who, in his day at the mine, would return to sender any mail that was incorrectly addressed - MT. ISA.
This proud city is - MOUNT ISA.