Opals

Monday, 11 June 2012


Although it has been a gloriously sunny day, the cool southerly breeze has kept temperatures down and the polar fleece on.

This morning we were picked up at 8.30 am for a tour of the opal fields. Our very informative bus driver told us he mined opal for five days a week and drove buses the other two so he could make some money. The impression we were given was that opal mining was not usually profitable – but there do seem to be thousands of people doing it! Unlike Coober Pedy, Lightning Ridge is actually scrubby and there are literally thousands of mines scattered about within a twelve mile radius of the town. Old car doors seem to be the way that people identify their camps and there are four colour-coded car door trails for the tourists to follow.

About 4,000 people (predominantly female!) live in camps outside the actual town and these range from the occasional “proper” house to caravans, buses (even a double decker), fibro and tin sheds, even a stone castle. We stopped at a tin and bark hut dwelling of two rooms which was the home of a multi-millionaire before he died. People come here to live for the life style. We also stopped at Amigo’s castle, which had never been finished. Amigo lived in a shack behind it. A concrete “observatory” had been constructed by a Polish gentleman – he scavenged all the left-over concrete from building sites to construct his dream. Cat wasn’t too sure that the concrete chairs were the most comfortable he had sat on.

A drive to the top of Lunatics Hill revealed a small open cut mine, possible when a consortium of six joined their leases and discovered the largest black opal found – it is now in the Smithsonian Institute. We were given the chance to have a look among a pile of rocks and hopefully find an opal ourselves. Someone found a likely looking piece, spent some time admiring the colour and giving it a good suck to help bring out the reflections and then was rather disappointed when the bus driver informed him is was a VB “opal!” Of course, no tour is complete without a visit to the obligatory gift shop, where we were given a Devonshire tea before an inspection of the jewellery on offer.

We were dropped off back at the caravan at lunch time, and with no bread left in the cupboard, headed for the IGA Supermarket. Should have gone before breakfast! No bread left on the shelves and the bakery had sold out well before lunch. No crumpets or muffins, even. We eventually found one loaf of raisin bread, so at least there will be something for breakfast tomorrow. Decided we would treat ourselves to a bought lunch but then had great difficulty in finding somewhere that was open (long weekend holiday here!). We ended up at the bowls club, which is massive, with a large dining room, even larger bistro, coffee shop and two bowling greens. Of course, hundred of poker machines as well!

We visited the John Murray Art Gallery on the way back to the caravan park – such a wonderful collection of very Australian art and humour. A couple of opal shops were also given the once over.

A soak in the hot springs turned into rather an “event;” we sat on the steps (in the water) between two Croatian men and the talk did become rather heated and political. One of them left quite hurriedly and the other then started lecturing us! It wasn’t long before I started to feel a little overcome by the heat – of the water, of course.