Mining town tourism in Australia: 10 destinations worth visiting

This northwest Queensland town digs up more silver, copper, lead and zinc than anywhere else on Earth. Get underground in orange overalls at Hard Times Mine and try a blast of the air-drill, learn about the evolution of mining at The Isa Experience, and visit abandoned Mary Kathleen uranium mine and township. A national park and artificial lakes make Mt Isa's surrounds rather pleasant. See outbackqueensland.com.au

GULGONG, NSW

Few Aussie towns better conjure up gold-rush atmosphere than Gulgong in the NSW Central West, which went from boom to bust in the 1870s and remains almost unaltered. It has some 150 listed buildings: not just a town hall, post office and hotel, but simple cottages and shopfronts too. The excellent Pioneer Museum is a treasure-trove of improbable junk and recreated interiors, including a bushranger-era pub. See visitmudgeeregion.com.au

KALGOORLIE, WA

Amid a landscape of salt lakes and red earth, Kalgoorlie erupts with impressive civic buildings flamboyant with lacy balconies and whimsical towers. The Museum of the Goldfields has historical mining displays and gold nuggets and bars, while the Super Pit showcases the vast scale of current open-cut mining. Follow the Golden Quest Discovery Trail north and you'll find ghost towns and present-day mining centres. See kalgoorlietourism.com

MELROSE, SA

The oldest town in the Flinders Ranges is now a tourist centre for those visiting Mount Remarkable National Park, but it started with mining and is full of attractive heritage buildings, including the post office, school, licensed hotels and a flour mill (and later brewery). The police station and courthouse complex has a small museum on the town's history. Melrose is surrounded by excellent mountain-biking trails. See melrose-mtremarkable.org.au

ARLTUNGA, NT

Alluvial gold brought prospectors 110 kilometres east of Alice Springs in 1887, but by the early 20th century everyone had gone. The result is a startlingly well-preserved early European settlement in stone that includes a police station, government buildings, mining works and the mournful White Range Cemetery, lonely on a hillside. The visitor centre is informative about the harsh mining life in such an isolated environment. See northernterritory.com

PORT HEDLAND, WA

Giant iron-ore trains, gas plants, gargantuan machines and port facilities mark this Pilbara port, sitting amid piles of salt, as a powerhouse of the Australian economy. Massive ships sail into the harbour almost at arm's length from passers-by in the street. Tour the Fortescue port site and Dampier Salt shipping area at Nelson Point for an eye-popping look at the scale of modern industry. See visitporthedland.com.au

COBAR, NSW

Grand colonial buildings along Barton and Linsley streets in this outback town are a reminder – along with a schoolhouse, cottages and churches – of a 1870s gold rush, highlighted at the Heritage Museum and Miners' Heritage Park. Today mineral wealth rolls in again. From Fort Bourke you can look into the open-cast New Cobar Gold Mine, where trucks seemingly small as beetles lumber through clouds of pink dust. See visitcobarshire.com.au

The writer travelled as a guest of state tourism offices and at his own expense.