Lightning Ridge caught us a bit by surprise. We expected something like White Cliffs, a moonscape in which life is mostly underground. LR is more of a mainstream type of town, with a focus on opals, opals and nothing but opals. But while that is a priority, there is also the amazing Black Hand carvings on the walls of a mine, and the wonderful hot spa baths. Loved it.
We were in Lightning Ridge on 30 & 31 April and 1 May 2021
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
For this post, the weather each day was a crisp night and then a glorious day. Look at the colour of the sky in the photos.
Getting There
Bourke > Brewarrina (98kms) > Walgett (133 kms) > Lightning Ridge (78kms) ~ 309kms
History
The traditional owners of the land around Lightning Ridge are the Yuwaalaraay people. Their language is also closely related to the Gamilaraay languages. The Yuwaalayaay language region includes the landscape of what is now within the local government boundaries of the Shire of Balonne as well as the border town of Goodooga, extending to Walgett and the Narran Lakes in NSW.
By the mid 1800s, British colonialists settled in the area, initially using the land for pastoral activities. The name Lightning Ridge is said to have originated when in the 1870s, some passers-by found the bodies of a farmer, his dog, and 200 sheep, which had been struck by lightning.
Europeans did not discover the potential for opal mining in Lightning Ridge until the late 1800s. In 1905, the first shafts were dug, with the unique Black Opal soon attracting the attention of fossickers in established mining towns such as White Cliffs.
Charlie Nettleton, an early pioneer in the area, walked 700 km from White Cliffs to see the Black Opal, walking back to White Cliffs the following year to develop a market and selling black opals to Ted Murphy, who later became the first resident opal buyer in Lightning Ridge.
Nettleton, regarded as the founder of the black opal industry, is commemorated with a life-sized bronze statue, the “Spirit of Lightning Ridge which is in the town.
But the fate of the Yuwaalaraay people over the decades has not been kind. After the traditional owners were displaced by the establishment of colonial pastoral stations, many Yuwaalaraay people stayed on as labourers, but were increasingly dispersed in the early 20th century. In 1936, several indigenous families living at a local government settlement were forced to move to the Brewarrina settlement.
At the 2001 census, Lightning Ridge had a population of 1,826, of whom 344 (18.8%) were Indigenous Australians. The population is said to be highly variable, as transient miners come and go over time.
Day 1 – 30 April – Drive to Lightning Ridge
We soon left the cotton farms and massive farm dams behind as we drove east into the sun. The road was quite bouncy almost all the way, so were at times only doing 80kph. There was also a lot of roadworks and we got held up for long periods at 2 major works.
We were surprised at how much water there was lying around the edges of the road or in lagoons. Some quite deep – you wouldn’t want to veer off the road here.
We stopped at Brewarrina and had a walk around – not a bad place at all, with some nice buildings.
We went to check on the fish ladder at the weir but it was all under water.
Brewarrina Bridge is also pretty good. Then it was back to the bumpy road and lots of roadside water.
We think that the yellow flowering plant is canola – lots on the roadside.
We stopped at Walgett for a look around. Quite a nice place. Then approaching Lightning Ridge we came to Stanley the Emu – a giant emu perched over the highway. The 18-metre-tall emu was constructed from more than a tonne of scrap metal, three Volkswagen bodies and a pair of rusting satellite dishes. It’s about 10 kilometres from town. Love these fantastical and imaginative sculptures – especially using recycled materials.
Our van site was pretty good though it was hard getting the tent pegs into the hard packed dirt.
After setting up the van and visiting the Tourist information office, we walked around town. It’s all about opals here and we had a look in a few shops. But what struck us was the street art – excellent.
Back at the carpark we got our swimmers and drove the 200m to the artesian pool for a dip. This is great with the temperature at 40 degrees. It is quite popular and being open 24 hours, you can imagine the people coming there at all hours. “It’s magic at night time with all the stars” we were told. We took their word for it.
The van park facilities were pretty good and at about 5 the fire was lit. We spent another evening with good fireside company.
Day 2 – 31 April – Around Lightning Ridge
On my morning walk I has seen a little garden near the Tourist Information office, so we went to check this out. It is the I.B.C. Gem Gardens and it focused on explaining how various flora were used by Aboriginal people. It was a quirky little garden but really interesting. There were some very different exhibits.
From there we decided to do some of the self-guided car door tours – we had paid our dollar for the car door tour guide. These have the appropriately coloured car doors pointing the way. We went to the blue car door tour first. Unfortunately, while taking us through the opal field this mainly took us to a couple of mines and a nursery. It was poorly signposted and we got totally lost, which is easy to do on the moonscape.
On the way back out we saw cactus-like plants with red fruit on it. What was that we wondered. Some had been opened by birds we assumed and they looked exactly like dragonfruit inside, but the outside didn’t have the curly bits that typify that fruit.
Later we did the green car door tour which was far more interesting. It starts about 3km out of town heading for the Nettleton’s First Shaft Lookout Historical Reserve. It is well signposted and after about 3.4km we got to the Lookout.
We read the monument acknowledging that this was where Nettleton, recognised as the father of opal mining at the Ridge, had sunk his first shaft. No opals were found here.
We walked on to our left as instructed and came to the labyrinth – constructed by 4 people over 6 hours, the guide says. We did a bit of repair work.
Just over from that is the beer can house – an amazing structure of beer cans and bottles. We went in and took lots of photos. There are truly some interesting structures in these remote areas.
After that we retreated to the hot spa baths – really loved that.
Day 3 – 1 May – Around Lightning Ridge
We started at the market early as we had booked a Black Hand tour for 9:30. This is all about opals and a few add ons. We wandered around all the stalls and quite liked the thought of getting a piece of rock with opal in it, rather than a finished stone. We had seen some we liked at one stall and went back there for another look. Unfortunately they ones we had liked were gone. However, there was a man there who was an amateur miner and he showed us a stone with opal. He said he would have bought it if he had been buying. So we got that.
And on the way out we stopped at a salami stall with lots of tastings. I bought a bush tucker salami which was yummy.
Next up was the Chambers of the Black Hand, which is truely an amazing place. There are more 800 carvings in what was an opal mine 12m below ground. These are all done by Ron Canlin who started this 25 years ago, and it just grew and grew. He has carved everything from native animals, Lord of the Rings characters, biblical entities and dinosaurs on the sandstone walls of an old opal cave. Even a section of Australian PMs and one of Trump and Boris J.
We assembled up top and after signing in we were given hard hats and masks. Its absolutely full on safety – both hats and Covid related masks… Good to see cause the air circulation won’t be that great down the mine.
Then group by group we went down the steps. We were welcomed by a fellow who then explained the background and took us to the start. We were instantly gobsmacked as we saw what was there. Here are a few photos from the numerous pics we took. Check out the politicians, who do you recognise.
We were there for an hour or so and probably went through it too fast. You can keep going around if you want. Finally we climbed back up the steps – I counted more than 80.This place was amazing – a hugely talented man, who had no training.
In the afternoon it was back to the hot spa bath.
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