4^th October, Saturday

Up at Sparrows and headed off for Lightning Ridge, we will be there tomorrow. Another beautiful day again although slightly overcast but still warm.  We have stopped off in an overnighter called “Collarenebri (Primitive camping ground??????)”, it’s in the middle of who knows where and so far we are the 2^nd people here. The road was good (especially with our new shock absorbers, no wonder we were rocking along). Most of the way is through farm land, wheat (I think), beans, chickpeas and cattle and they are all over the road.  It’s all very pretty and we are heading more inland again. We are not that far from the Queensland border so hence the warm weather. We drove through a little town called ‘Gravesend” and what an apt name for the place.  I don’t think that I saw one person move while we were driving through.  It is tiny and I think that at one stage it might have been a farming co-op but that looks to be all closed down, it’s a shame that these little towns don’t survive. Next place was Moree, it was huge as it even had traffic lights and we haven’t seen those for awhile. We didn’t stop in this bustling metropolis as it’s hard to pull up in the centre of town with a caravan.  It looks to be quite a bustling town and very pretty, it’s a shame that we can’t stop everywhere. We thought that we might as well keep going as it was still early and the more we can do today the less we do tomorrow. The 2 overnighters (where we were going to stop) were only a pull over for about 3 vans so we decided to skip those 2 and do this one, which was a good move.  This is real red neck country, you can buy bullets, bait, animal skulls, you name it. This 24 stopover has toilets (flushing) and hot showers, it’s amazing and it’s free.  A few truckies have been stopping to have a break and have a shower.  One of them came over to us and chatted for about 40 minutes and told us to watch the road from here to Lightning Ridge because it is bad.  We were thankful for the advise and now know what to expect.  We always take it easy but it nice to know what you’re in for.  The truckies are really good, we sit on the radio so everyone knows everyones intentions, obviously there are the cowboys but some of the caravan drivers are not that crash hot themselves. I’m just sitting here typing this and watching the sky, it is so beautiful, it has shades of red, orange and purple and if I was anything of a decent photographer I think that this would make such a beautiful photo. It’s now night time and there are only 4 vans in this huge place, I wonder why?  Anyways folks, this is a big story for one day and we are not even there yet and so you don’t have any history yet (I can hear some of you sighing a sigh of relief, but watch this space)  🙂 V

Lightning Ridge (wikipedia) is a town in north-western New South Wales, Australia, in Walgett Shire, near the southern border of Queensland, about six kilometres east of the Castlereagh Highway, and is served in commercial activities by the town of Walgett – some 75 km to the south. Lightning Ridge is a flourishing tourist town with numerous caravan (camper-trailer) and camping parks, the previously very rustic Diggers’ Rest pub (which has burned down for the third time) and a well-appointed bowling club with its eight artificial-grass bowling greens. Temperatures in summer can reach into the high 40s Celsius, but below ground the temperature remains continually at around 22 degrees, year round. The Lightning Ridge area is a world-renowned centre of the mining of black opals and other opal gemstones. Lightning Ridge has the largest known deposits of black opals in the world. 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 600 sheep which had been struck by lightning.

Population

In 2001 it had a population of 1,826, of whom 344 (18.8%) are Indigenous Australians and 1,304 (71.4%) are other Australians. The population is said to be highly variable as transient miners come and go over time. In Lightning Ridge (Urban Centre – Locality), the most popular industries of employment were Education 4.5%, Accommodation, Cafes and Restaurants 4.1%, Other Mining 4.0%, Community Services 2.7% and Personal and Household Good Retailing 2.5%. Prior to the 2004 Public Enquiry into the functioning of Walgett Shire, it worked on the basis that there were about 7,000 people in the town, but the enquiry found that this estimate was given no support by the 2001 census and contrasted with the 1,109 people who voted in the town at the local government elections in 2004 in the 2011 census the population had increased to 4501 the large increase was due to a dramatic increase in mining and related industries. At the 2006 census, Lightning Ridge had a population of 2,602 people.

Indigenous Lightning Ridge

The traditional owners of the land around Lightning Ridge are the Yuwaalaraay people. After they 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. Since that time, the local Indigenous population has increased because of the influx from other regions of Indigenous people seeking work in opal mining or agriculture.

Arts

Some artists have settled in and around Lightning Ridge. One of the most famous local Australian painters is John Murray who brings the impressions of the Outback, often in a situation with man or fauna onto the canvas.

Fossils

Lightning Ridge is an important paleontological site, with fossils dating back to the Cretaceous period, 110 million years ago. The sandstone rock once formed the bottom of a shallow inland sea where the remains of aquatic plants and animals were preserved. The site is especially important as a source of fossils of ancient mammals which, at that time, were small creatures living in a world dominated by dinosaurs. The fossils are sometimes opalised and discovered by opal miners. Important discoveries at Lightning Ridge include the ancestral monotremes Kollikodon ritchiei and Steropodon galmani.

Water

Lightning Ridge has an abundance of hot water from a bore spring into the Great Artesian Basin and offers two hot water pools for bathing. The minerals make the water very healthy for external use and drinking. The public can tap mineral water at a hose in Harlequin Street. The Hot Artesian Bore Baths and Nettletons Shaft, on McDonald’s Six Mile Opal Field have been placed on the Register of the National Estate. 5^th October, Sunday Here we are in Lightning Ridge. We thought that we left at sparrows this morning but it turns out that day light saving started today and we didn’t change the watches.  We thought that we would stop for breakfast at ? because we were too early to head for Lightning Ridge but as it so turned out we were later because of the day light saving, so we weren’t the smart asses we thought we were. Breakfast was nice anyway and we met some nice people who shared our table.  They had just come from Lightning Ridge so were telling us all about it.  The town is different to what we have been seen (you can all be happy that there are no old buildings here as it’s a mining town), it’s an amazing place.  There is an artesian pool across the road from the caravan park and apparently the water is really hot so you have to go in slowly.  We will do that before we leave because it is hot today and the only pool I want is the cool one that they have in the caravan park. We might check it out later.  There is a local artist here who does the most amazing stuff (John Murray). He did the big iron Emu statue thingie that you see before coming into town. We have been here for about an hour and Ralphie is already looking for Opals, I think that he has found 2 small pieces. The ground here is so hard (no grass in the park only gravel) that Ralph had to use the drill to get the pegs in for the shade screening.  We can see now why no-one else has any screening but you really do need it here.  Perhaps he should hire the drill out at $2 per screen. The couple who own the park put on a late afternoon concert.  The lady owner (not sure of her name) is not a bad singer at all. People were welcome to come up and sing if they wanted to (Karaoke) and some did, not our scene really so we just watched and left after awhile and came back for dinner (old farts). The NRL was on and the couple who were our neighbours in the last camp site are now our neighbours again in this camp site and so they invited us to come around and watch the game.  The boys sat in the caravan watching the game while Sue and I sat outside and chatted, much more civilised than what the boys were doing.  Night all. Xxxx

6^th October, Monday

It’s a public holiday here today, not that we care (haha). Another glorious day, blue skies and it’s going to be another warm one. We decided to go and have a look at the opal fields.  Our neighbours tagged along with us. The Opal fields are about 60kms from Lightning Ridge.  The landscape going there is quite different from other of the outback that we have seen so far, I really do love the outback.  A lot of it are stations and it looks to be mainly sheep and goats.  The Opal here is Black Opal unlike the Opal in Coober Pedy which I am told is White Opal.  The Opal fields are close to our a town called Cumborah and I doubt that it would even be on a map. The Opal fields are a bit like Sapphire (where we stayed in Queensland).  Rough, dry and dusty, people living in humpies but no town to speak of.  You don’t dare wander onto any ones property as you are likely to be shot.  They take that sort of thing very seriously here so you stick to the road and don’t go wandering off.  There are a lot of open shafts around as well (like the gold fields in Kalgoorlie), so it’s dangerous in that respect as well.  There seems to be no rules here as the cars we have seen are no licenced, no number plates and I doubt if they are even road worthy.  It’s certainly a different kind of place.  There are 3 bush pubs here, so you can see what they main pass time is apart from mining.  They are unique.  The first one (Pub in the Scrub) has a golf course and it’s hilarious.  The road leading to the pub cuts right through the middle of the dry dusty course and there are signs to watch for balls.  No golf though as everyone seems to be in the pub.  We stopped there for a drink and then drove to the second pub (Sheepyard).  On the way there is a war memorial and it’s not just for the 2 World wars, it’s for all of the wars where Australians have served.  It’s one of the best memorials I have seen as it’s simple and rustic. We stopped off at Sheepyard and had another drink, a walk around and some photos, they are holding an “Ugly Blokes competition here soon”.  The locals are such characters.  After Sheepyard we went to the last pub which was (Glengarry Hilton), they say accommodation but I can’t see where it would be, perhaps in the bush with the snakes. We had lunch there and decided to drive back.  It was quite a long day but so interesting and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  We had a nanna nap when we got back and then I went for a swim to cool down.  We are running the air con today as it is really warm.  Tomorrow we will go around town and see the sights.

 

7^th October, Tuesday

Before bed last night Sue (our neighbour) and I wandered across the road to the hot pools. You can’t do these during the day as I think that with the current temperatures they would probably kill you.  The boys weren’t interested in coming.  There are 2 hot artesian pools there one big one which is very hot and one smaller one which is hot.  We sat in the smaller one and it was hot.  We put our foot in the other one and there is no way that I could have sat in there.  You can only sit in there for 5 mins (max.) before you can feel the heat going to your face.  You get out have a cold shower and then hop back in again.  I think that to sit in there for too long is dangerous as it raises your blood pressure.  The water is evidently very healthy as it’s full of minerals. Today is very windy, still hot and also very dusty because of the wind.  The caravan park has no grass so you can imagine how dusty it is.  We went to see Paul Murrys art gallery and the guy is so talented.  We loved it as his painting are cartoon outback. He has painting there were he takes the mickey out of our esteemed prime minister and his budgie smugglers.  I need to buy a postcard of that and photograph it for you so you can see what he does.  It’s hilarious.  We took a drive through the opal fields but this time the ones around Lightning Ridge.  Still all humpies, shafts and piles of sand everywhere.  Evidently there is no power going to these places so they rely on generators, small wind turbines and there are quite a lot of them that have no power at all??????  It’s certainly another world. There’s the cemetery on the way, lots of old graves and new ones.  It’s a sad place because there are so many graves where the people who died are unknown, I guess that, that is typical for a mining town as the conditions were harsh and still are really.  There is a castle that Amigo (local miner) started building from the stone (ironstone mainly) that he was pulling out of his lease. He started building this in 1985 as he was getting bored with mining.  The castle is still not finished and he still lives and mines on the lease.  There is another place further up which is supposed to be some sort of Astronomers monument.  It looks like it has been built out of old tins and plastered over.  There certainly are some very strange people living out here and it really cracks us up to see these places.  People that we met from Inverell have just arrived so it should be a good party with everyone here tonight.  There are a nice group of people in this park.  Ralph and I went for a nice cool swim and poor Hugo was so frustrated tied up on the other side of the fence.  Poor boy was so hot and bothered and he would have loved to have jumped in with us, shame that he is not allowed. I think that I will do early dinner tonight and Sue and I will go and jump into the thermal pool again at about 9 pm.  You can’t go before then, too hot.

8^th October, Wednesday

Today Ralph and our neighbours went back to the place we went to the other day to do some fossicking on a big dump that the mining company have put there. It is allowed as it’s not a private lease and the stuff is from underground.  It is where the pubs in the scrub are so about 60 kms for them to go. They came back filthy and exhausted but they had a good time and thankfully it was a cooler day.  We have been told that the temps here go over the 50’s in summer and everything shuts down (I’m not surprised} Sue and I went for our usual hot bath before bed.

9^th October, Thursday

Another warm day and we went off to do some more sight seeing. We went down a working mine and took the stairs down the shaft.  It was 20m down, narrow and the stairs were really windy and steep.  I must admit that I was really scared.  I didn’t like the feeling of the tunnels when we got to the bottom, too far underground for me and all hand dug and still being dug.  The tunnels all join up with other miners and it’s like a whole new little town down there.  Quite frankly, they can keep it because I don’t think that the opal is worth it.  We have been told that the average opal miner doesn’t really earn all that much money, about $20 000 per year but it’s a cheap way of life as the leases only cost them $200 per year and they live on benefits for the rest, they can keep it.  It’s quite fascinating to visit though and you meet such different sorts of people.  Apparently a lot of the people in camp use the artesian pools and showers because they don’t have water.  Sue and I met such a family tonight at the pools.  The whole family was there having showers and using the hot pools because they had run out of water in their camp.  We stopped off at another mine (Lunatics Hill).  There was an old fella there with his dogs selling his opals at his camp.  His house was an old double decker bus.  We started to speak to him and he kept saying “Hey, Hey, I can’t hear you”.  He then realised that he had cotton wool in his ears that he had forgotten about because he had a tick go down his ear and he was scared that there was going to be another one going down there.  He told us that the doctor sprayed baygon down his ear to get rid of it?????  Such a character.  This place is really amazing and the more you see the more you are amazed at how people can live like this but it is their choice. There is a church in the opal fields that was built for a movie, the movie was called “The goddess of 1967”, I don’t know that anyone has ever heard of the movie and the church has never been used. We stayed up and watched the eclipse of the moon it was awesome and I will put the pics up for them tomorrow. I took a gazillion of them and need to sort them out.

10^th October, Friday

Today we went to visit another underground opal mine (Chambers of the black hand). This is different in as far as it is not a working mine anymore.  The guy who owns it said that he didn’t get enough opal out of it to make it worthwhile continuing.  He is an artist as well as a miner and decided to sculpture and paint onto the tunnel walls.  He says that he has made a lot more money since opening the mine to the public as a sort of art exhibition.  There is a shop down there as well that sell Opals and jewellery.  I think that he has done well out of doing this and it’s a different kind of concept.  He is 74 (doesn’t look it) and he owns another mine not far off that he is still working for opal. The temperature down the mine is cool and it’s stays constant throughout winter and summer. I forgot to mention that there is a huge Serbian community here, they have their own church and their own club and all seem to live out in the mining camps as they all come to the hot pools at about 8.30 pm to use the showers. This is a small town and to have such a large community of one ethnic group is quite strange.  I asked a local (Serbian guy) why there was such a big community.  He said that it is cheap to live here.  I can understand that because it costs $700 to stake a claim whether you mine it or not (50m x 50m of land), that money is kept as a bond so that the lease is left neat when they leave, no piles of dirt etc. from their mine.  It costs only $200 per year for that lease and they all live in humpies, so in essence they are all really living free and use the town facilities, not for me thanks. Unlike Coober Pedy they can’t live underground as it’s too damp.  The rest of the day we spent chillaxing as the weather is getting really hot.

 

11^th October, Saturday

Today we spent the day doing housework, cleaning the outside of the van and general maintenance as we head off for Narrabri tomorrow morning. There was a husband and wife duo doing some country music at the park at 4.30.  We went and watched that and then ordered take away as we don’t feel like cooking seeing as we are leaving tomorrow.  Sue and I had our last dunk in the pools tonight.  It was really hot tonight so we didn’t stay too long.  So, see you all in Narrabri. xxxxx