Hard Times Mine Underground Tour

Go underground at Outback at Isa with an experienced guide. Descend in the Alimak cage, hear stories from Mount Isa’s mining past, try your hand at the machinery, and enjoy a tea or coffee and a pastie in the crib room. Cameras are welcome, so bring yours along.

What’s included: A guided tour, safety gear, machinery and drilling demonstrations, and refreshments underground.

Tour times: Check our calendar below for available dates. Please arrive 15 minutes early. Allow approximately 3 hours.

Before you go: Ages 7+. Bring socks; enclosed footwear is provided. A signed waiver is required. Tours need at least four participants. Please contact us before booking if you have a medical condition, mobility concern or claustrophobia that may affect your safety underground.

Prices: Adults $85 · Concessions $78 · Children (7–17) $50 · Family (2 adults + 2 children) $220. Group discounts are available on request.

Ready to go down under?

Book Hard Times Mine
Two miners in an underground tunnel, one in a yellow safety vest and the other in orange coveralls, both wearing rubber boots and helmets with lights, looking up and pointing at the ceiling.
A woman wearing an orange safety helmet with a headlamp, and an orange jumpsuit, is holding a large rock or mineral sample in both hands inside a quarry or mining site with a concrete wall background.
A woman in orange mining gear, including a hard hat with a headlamp and ear protection, operating machinery inside a tunnel with steel reinforcement.

Hard Times Mine Surface Tour

Discover Mount Isa’s mining story without going underground. Your guide will take you through selected Isa Experience Museum exhibits, past historic surface machinery and into the Winder House to show how miners and equipment travelled below ground. This one-hour tour is suitable for all ages.

Tour times: Check our calendar below for available dates. Please arrive 15 minutes early.

Prices: Adults $30 · Concessions $27 · Children (6–17) $17 · Children 5 and under free · Family (2 adults + 2 children) $77. Group discounts are available on request.

What to wear: Comfortable clothing and enclosed footwear. Gumboots are available if needed.

Book Hard Times Mine Surface Tour
A woman in orange safety gear and a white hard hat holding a gauge, talking to an older man in a high-visibility vest and white hard hat checking gauges on a panel in an industrial or electrical setting.
Two people dressed in Safety gear, a woman in an orange jumpsuit and hard hat, and a man in black clothing with a neon yellow safety vest and hard hat, walking in front of an old, rusty mining headframe with a sign that reads ‘HARD TIMES MINING COMPANY’ under a blue sky with scattered clouds.

Riversleigh Fossil Discovery Centre

Step Back in Time & Discover Australia’s Ancient Past

Travel back 15–25 million years and discover the ancient wildlife of the World Heritage–listed Riversleigh. Explore real fossils, interactive exhibits, films and a walk-through diorama at your own pace.

For a closer look, book a guided tour of our working laboratory; the only lab processing fossil-bearing limestone from Riversleigh itself. Our lab technicians regularly visit the site and bring back material containing fossils yet to be discovered. They and our guides love sharing their work, making a guided tour a special experience for curious visitors of all ages.

Self-guided admission: Visit during opening hours. Adults $19.50 · Concessions $17 · Children $11.50 · Family (2 adults + 2 children) $51.

Guided tours: 10:30am and 2:30pm on most days. Bookings required. Adults $38 · Concessions $34 · Children $23 · Family (2 adults + 2 children) $99.

Book Riversleigh Guided Tour
A diverse group of people, including elderly and young children, working with microscopes in a bright lab with large windows, engaging in scientific research or learning.
Book Riversleigh Self Guided Tour
A man and woman exploring a fossil exhibit at a museum's discovery center. They are pointing at a touch screen table. The background has informational signs about extinct species and a large bear.