Mount Isa in the years of WWI was an isolated blip of far-flung pastoral leases, with the occasional prospector finding slim pickings. Yet this district saw its youth leave to sign up for King and Country on the other side of the world, some of whom were stockmen and horse breakers, skills much sought after by the Australian Light Horse. A war memorial obelisk in George McCoy Park was refurbished in 2005. It includes the names of locals who served in WWI, WWII and Vietnam. Mount Isa didn't really 'make the map' until lone gold prospector John Campbell Miles stumbled upon one of the world's richest deposits of copper, silver and zinc during his expedition into the Northern Territory in 1923. Mount Isa Mines was established a year later and the city grew around it.
