LIGHTNING RIDGE

10^th May, 2016

We're now in the far north of New South Wales and not far from the Queensland border lies the opal mining town of Lightning Ridge. As we get closer to the turnoff into Lightning Ridge a large sculpture (obviously of an emu) comes into view and we just have to stop and take a look. A plaque at the base of the sculpture explains how and why 'Stanley' came into being.

Really 'large' is a bit of an understatement. The word that comes to mind when looking up at Stanley is 'gigantic'.

It's a long way up to that first VW

After being suitably impressed with Stanley we head into Lightning Ridge. The familiar landscape of an opal mining area soon comes into view.

Mullock heaps near Lightning Ridge

We check into a caravan park which is situated right behind the main shopping area where there are innumerable opal galleries and touristy type shops to browse through. There are a couple of tourist companies which will take you on a tour around the town and opal diggings but there are also some self drive tours which one can do. We opt for the self drive tours so that we can take our time and stop for however long we want at the sites along the way. The self drive tours are called 'Car Door Tours' and are signposted with old car doors that have been scavenged from the diggings. There is the Red Car Door Tour, the Blue Car Door Tour, the Green Car Door Tour, etc. etc. etc. ... you get the idea!

After breakfast next morning we set off to do the Yellow Car Door Tour. This tour takes us out into the 3 Mile Opal field through the mullock heaps where the original township of Lightning Ridge once stood. There are lots of open mine shafts around so it is not wise to wander aimlessly around Lightning Ridge. We stop for a look around Lunatic Hill.

Lunatic Hill Open Cut at Lightning Ridge

The leases for this section of land were bought by one company and open cut mining was undertaken. In 1986 an opal valued at $2.5 million was found here – it was named Halley's Comet. Information Panels explain the geology and mining techniques used. The tour continues into the 4 Mile Opal field and then joins up with the Castlereagh Highway. We head back for a bite to eat at the local RSL and then head head out towards the Artesian Baths where we find the start of the Red Car Door Tour. This tour takes us up into Sim's Hill Opal field and was the site of the first 1906 settlement called Wallangulla or Old Town. The first opal rush boomed here in 1905. There are many private homes along the track with recycled materials being a popular choice for building construction. Bottles, rocks, corrugated iron, bits of tin – anything that was discarded and could be used for another purpose was utilised and still is. We stop for a look at Amigo's Castle, a private home single-handedly built of ironstone.

Amigo's Castle - Lightning Ridge

Started in 1981 and inspired by Roman ruins in northern Italy, Amigo constructed the castle using scaffolding consisting of 44 gallon drums with planks arranged one above the other.

Section of Amigo's Castle at Lightning Ridge

Underground there are trapdoors, dungeons and tunnels leading to Amigo's mine. We continue along the track passing old shafts with hoist buckets standing idly by.

It is now late afternoon – so time to head back to camp and a singsong around the campfire before turning in for the night. In the morning we opt for the Blue Car Door Tour which takes us to the Bald Hill Opal field. This field was famous for good black opals that were found on many different levels. Besides opals agate and quartz have been found in this area. The last stop on this tour is at Bean's Black Opal and Cactus Nursery. It is easy to understand why cactii grows so easily here. The climate and soil (what soil there is) suits these plants perfectly. With over 2300 species the nursery has the largest collection of cactii in the southern hemisphere and are the world's only opal mining cactus farmers! The cactus farm was the last stop on our Blue Car Door Tour so we then decided to visit a place that we had passed yesterday - Chambers of the Black Hand. This is a mine with a difference. Ron Canlin bought the unwanted mine in 1982 hoping to find his fortune. The mine did not live up to expectations so he built some stairs and turned it into an open mine for tourists. After the first year of showing a few people the mine he decided to dig a little extra room at the 35 foot level to give visitors a demonstration of opal cutting. As the sandstone was excavated for the new room he carved a welcome hand in the stone and the Chambers of the Black Hand was born. One carving led to another and when one room was completed the next room was excavated to allow for more carvings. The result is a set of catacomb-like rooms where dinosaurs, goblins and figures such as Nostradamus and the Archangel Gabrielle emerge eerily from the walls. Ron gets his inspiration from photos in books and newspapers. Having found a picture he digs out a new space in the mine with a jackhammer and begins to carve the relief with a small pick. The fine work is done with kitchen utensils – the sandstone being stable but very malleable. In the small shed at the top of the mine we don hard hats and make our way slowly down the steep stairs to the carving level. There is a tour of the actual opal mining level further down the mine with the guide being a present-day opal miner. This tour was very interesting with life on the opal fields discussed as well as information on what it was and is like to mine opal. We returned to the carving level and were then on our own to explore the maze of tunnels for as long as we liked. The following photos are a snippet of some of the wonderful creations that we saw :-

 

Large carving of the Last Supper

 

In the maze of tunnels we find Ron Canlin hard at work on his next carving

 

 

 

Just love these meerkats !

 

 

Ron Canlin is now in his eighties and still carving away. His dream of becoming rich as an opal miner has changed somewhat. He is now rich in other ways and the fantastic underground world he has created and is still creating will delight people for many years to come.

That afternoon we embark on the Green Car Door Tour which follows an ironstone ridge to the north of the town. Although power lines come from the highway to town most of the camps on the fields don't have power from the electricity grid and are instead self-reliant on generators or solar or wind or just plain go without. Along this track we pass an old wild orange tree that has an 80 foor root system. The aboriginals made a paste of this fruit and some miners regard them as surface indicators of opal. At the end of the track we come to a lookout at the site of Nettleton's First Shaft which faces northwest over the Coocoran Opal Fields.

 
These fields were a multi-billion dollar venture between 1988-1996. If the dollars found there were equated to bricks and mortar the skyline would easily resemble that of the Gold Coast. It's hard to visualise the fortunes won and lost here on the opal fields let alone the back-breaking work needed to win the opal from the ground. Today the miners have machinery to help with the digging but this is no place for the weak. The work is still punishing, life difficult and the climate unforgiving.
 Ahhh … but the chance of finding that one in a million opal …. It's what dreams are made of .. !