Community
16 September, 2024
Final design for memorial locked in, now for funding
The memorial would pay tribute to the miners who gave their lives in service to Mount Isa.
Mount Isa’s miners memorial project has a location and an agreed design as efforts turn to securing the required funding.
The memorial project, which has been spearheaded by a committee led by Tony McGrady and a team of passionate locals over the past four years, recently saw Mount Isa City Council agree to a master plan report for construction at Frank Aston Hill.
The memorial design, which will pay tribute to 151 men who have lost their lives working at Mount Isa Mines over the past century, will include landscaped gardens, pathways, shaded seating areas and a mini-amphitheatre for small gatherings sprawled across several levels of the hill.
Committee member Steve Trevor, whose 33-year-old brother Tony died when he was crushed between two truck bodies at MIM in 1995, said the memorial would pay permanent tribute to the men who gave their lives in service to Mount Isa.
He said the committee hoped to soon commence lobbying efforts across state and federal governments to assist in the construction of the design as council also looks for appropriate funding grants available.
“You drive through Moura or Broken Hill and they have huge mining memorials – so why shouldn’t Mount Isa?” he told North West Weekly.
“We are a proud mining town – so why shouldn’t we be paying tribute to the men who have made the ultimate sacrifice in our city?
“A lot of work has been completed over the past four years – we just need to get the funding secured now.”