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Published: June 23rd 2014
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Lunatic Hill, Lightning Ridge
85 year old Brian has a stall next to his claim, where he sells some of the stones to tour groups. No sleeping in this morning as we had to be at the Tourist Information Centre by 8.50 am to be picked up by the Outback Opal Tour bus. There was only one other couple doing the tour so we could sit anywhere on the minibus. Our guide Peter, wearing a T-shirt saying “Grumpy Old Man” on it, told us the basics about opal formation and had a few samples of the various rocks, clay and potch to pass around (except he didn’t unless you asked to see them!). He then took us around the town, past some quirky buildings, like Amigo’s Castle and The Astronomers Monument, some extravagantly large, like the second largest bowling club in Australia (pipped recently by a new one in Sydney) and the Olympic size and standard swimming pool.
Lightning Ridge residents are fiercely independent and greatly dislike beaurocracy and red tape, according to Peter, so they circumvented it by buying the land for the pool and building it themselves for a fraction of what it would have cost the council and in a fraction of the time. It was done by donations of money, materials and time. One miner turned up with some digging equipment
Big Opal Shop and Underground Mine
This was the rather squeezy 2 person lift I was taken down the mine in while Barry and the others walked down a spiral staircase. soon after they had bought the land and asked where they wanted the hole. “What hole?” “For the pool.” They hadn’t even got that far in the planning so they called in the surveyors and architects and quickly worked out what they would build then told the miner where to dig “the hole”. He worked at it for several days and then took himself and his equipment back to his claim. He only accepted one 44 gallon drum of diesel fuel and a slab of beer as payment. No nonsense people with hearts of gold.
We then went into the opal fields, which are everywhere you look once past the main streets in the town. Many of the miners live in shacks or caravans next to their claims (there are no big mining companies here – mining is all done by individuals or small partnerships). Some homes seem very ramshackle and others are quite nice looking. Most have solar panels and wind generators on them for power and satellite dishes for TV. Of course the mullock heaps are all over the place, with the automatic hoists looming above them. These carry the opal dirt that the miner has dug
Who Cares Clock, Amigo's Castle
This is similar to one I saw in a gift shop at Bega during our last trip but this one is home-made from a car hubcap. Typical Lightning Ridge attitude to time, though! out up to ground level and dump it into a truck. Some miners use a blower (like a giant vacuum cleaner) to suck it up to the surface.
The other common piece of equipment is the agitator or “rumble”, which is a modified cement mixer used to tumble (no water) or wash (with water) the opal dirt for several hours to remove most of the clay or sandstone. What’s left is called the “tailings” and the miner then goes through these looking for anything with opal colour.
Opal mining is sometimes done by open cut methods as in Lunatic Hill, which was our next stop, but this is unusual at “The Ridge”. It got its name because everyone said the owners were lunatics for digging where they did and using the open cut, but they did well out of it for quite a few years. Now it’s just a big hole. 85 year old Brian still has a claim next to it and a wonky looking stall where he sells some of his opals. He seemed a tough old stick and enjoyed meeting new people. People in the town seem to carry their age well and keep working,
Amigo's Castle, Lightning Ridge
In 1981, Vittorio Stefanato, known as Amigo, got tired of opal mining and decided to build this castle from ironstone, inspired by some Roman ruins in Nth Italy, where he came from. It is still going ahead, slowly, but he doesn't live in it any longer as he needed more privacy. not sure if that’s by necessity or desire. Whilst some miners make millions of dollars many barely scratch a living. Opal, so they told us, is very fickle.
Part of the tour was going into the Big Opal Shop and Underground Mine. Barry and the others entered by walking down a spiral staircase but I was taken down in a very squeezy lift that just fitted me and the operator in it, lucky me (the walkers all beat us down, though!).
Inside the mine, Peter explained how the old miners used to dig the opal dirt out by hand working in a confined space in the dark. They only lit their candle if they heard the ring of the pickaxe hitting the opal or potch to see what they’d got (he demonstrated and there was a distinct difference in the sound the clay and the potch make when struck). They usually had drives (tunnels) of only three feet in height starting from where the clay or sandstone had appeared in the shaft because they believed that was where the opals were (it’s where the biggest concentration is, but there are still good opals below that level). Because they
Justine at The Opal Bin
Justine is grinding the clay, sandstone and potch off a piece of opal to reveal the colour. After being on this first diamond wheel the opal stone is now called a "Rub". Six more, each finer than the last, are used to get the polished gemstone. were digging by hand, they didn’t want to waste energy digging more than they needed to but it meant they did most of the work lying down or on their knees! Of course, nowadays most of the digging is done by machine and the drives are big enough to stand up in. Much easier.
After coffee and a biscuit, we headed back to town where we were given a demonstration of opal cutting by Justine at the Opal Bin. She starts by choosing a stone with some colour and then holds the stone against a diamond wheel to rub the clay or sandstone off. The stone is then called a “rub”. She then attaches the stone to a wooden stick using wax (like they do for diamond-cutting) and works progressively through finer and finer wheels (seven altogether) until the gem is smooth and gleams.
Opals used to have to be a regular shape for jewellery or it wouldn’t get any buyers but now the cutters allow the stone to dictate its shape, especially for fine opals. Justine showed us the small drill (just like a dentist uses!) that can remove very small pieces of potch without removing the
The Opal Bin
Justine carved this gorgeous dragon from grey potch (opal with no colour). She also carved the beautiful stones behind it, using a fine dentist;s drill to keep as much of the colour as possible. colour. What’s left has a very individual, often undulating, shape and I think they look wonderful. It also means the colour doesn’t end up on the floor unnecessarily. They call this opal carving.
Justine was the lady we’d seen yesterday who took a photo of my dragon pendant. She saw that I was wearing a different one today and asked if she could take a picture of that, too. I thought I’d be cheeky and said yes if I could take a photo of her carved dragon. She agreed. I was very lucky that the dragon was sitting in front of one of the beautiful carved opals so I got that in the shot, too!
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