Today’s blogalong is about the Lightning Ridge Black Opal fields, located in the north west of New South Wales.

This is what opal mining is about – a black opal with myriad colour flashes.

The above stone has been set in this piece for over 50 years now, and although slightly fractured, displays fire that is difficult to portray with a camera – the stunning beauty of opal must be seen with eyes to truly appreciate the galaxy of colour flashes that good stones display.

Over a century of mining has taken place within the Lightning Ridge fields, and the draw of opal fever, as well as an outback lifestyle, has allowed the town of Lightning Ridge to survive and grow.

It is now a modern outback town with most modern conveniences.

Coopers Cottage was built in 1916 in the main street of the ridge, and is still in reasonable order.

Miners had to deal with hand dug shafts, little or no water, dirt tracks, and summers to hot to live in.

As the lightning ridge field got dug out, new fields along the surrounding ridges opened up, and mines by the thousand were opened up. Most of these were tunneled mines, with a very few being opencut.

Black opal was found at the Sheepyards field, which started a rush in surrounding Grawin and Glengarry, with every gully being pegged and mined.

Mining has mostly ceased at Glengarry, but nearby fields have now been opened up.

The Glengarry area, which includes Sheepyards, is now becoming a village.

Due to alcohol needs of thirsty miners, the Sheepyard pub was born without a license, many years ago, in this tin shed. It has been ‘dollied up’ on the outside, but inside it is the same as it was in the early 90’s – rough but comfortable

almost the same with the Glengarry Hilton, not many changes for years – gathering places for miners and their families, as well as tourists and backpackers-

One would think that the environment in the opal fields would be trashed, but corridors of vegetation are to be found between most claims. These vegetated areas support Black Pine and Gum tree dry forests and grasslands, with many birds, reptiles, kangaroos and emus utilizing the forested areas.

The grassland in the above pic supports a greenhood orchid, the only orchid known on the opal fields. This species is currently described as having an affinity to a known species from south east Queensland, so it is a disjunct population, with further taxonomic work needed to determine its significance. Plants in this patch will not flower this season due to leaf burn off and lack of water. A plant nearby, however, is growing from the edge of a discarded truck tyre, and has been gaining water from condensation on the tyre, and will flower in a few weeks if the kangaroos don’t get it first.

The mullock dumps are now confined to specific areas, and all dirt from mines is now going to the heaps, instead of littering the fields. So is all the opal missed by the miners, and a tradition of noodling, or fossicking for opal in heaps is still in action, with some noodlers finding a living from the heaps.

Being out in the open, in sun and fresh air, noodling on a heap is a constructive day.

Kangaroos inhabit the fields, this mother and daughter were feeding around a Grawin camp – the tin building is a drop dunny, a toilet built over an old mining shaft.

This large male was part of a clan feeding near the road at Cumborah.

For the first time in many years of doing this trip, there were no road kill kangaroos sighted in the Opal field areas.

A great inland sea once covered the area, providing the moisture and silica to create the formation of Opal. Drought has decimated some parts of the land, other flat areas like this one, were seen with carpets of unopened ‘everlasting daisy’.

A few hours prior to sunset, a large jet was seen flying north over the fields at Glengarry.

It was discharging copious ‘con’ trails. Jets of this size are certainly not a common sight at Glengarry – it is not under a flight path.

3 hours after the flyover, the broken clouds joined as one, and rain fell, continuing overnight.

The most amazing mine I have ever seen is the Chambers of the Black Hand at Lightning Ridge. The mine was worked 100 years ago, but was reopened in the 90’s. A sandstone level was found at the 30 foot level, and a creative genius was let loose in the reasonably soft rock – his name – Ron Canlin – recognizing the carving potential of the sandstone, he started carving some bas relief carvings of Australian animals on the wall, and went from there.

Ten years later, the carvings are on display to the public.

Arguably the most impressive carving is this depiction of the last supper.

Some of the rooms prove to be too difficult to carve, so some have been painted, like this amazing Australian Fauna scene.

It takes about half an hour to view the works done so far, with every tunnel and room having some carving, sculpture or painting.

Sculptures leap out of walls ---

-- and hide in every nook and cranny, making the Chambers of the Black Hand a truly absorbing journey  --

The view of the entrance, from the Art Gallery Level, stairs cut through solid sandstone.

Pastoral leases are large in the Walgett Area, and it is not uncommon to see emu or kangaroo sharing grassland with cattle.

This area is part of what is known as the ‘long paddock’ – a traveling stock route, where cattle and sheep are herded slowly along the roadsides to utilize the greener feed in the table drains beside the roads.

Here, a mob of young beef cattle are being herded by a group of female stockwomen over a river bridge. The road was closed to traffic, requiring police, the pastoral board, and other support vehicles to control the incident, for about half an hour. Apparently, the bridge moves under the weight and movement of the herd, and this movement spooks the cattle.

Part of the same river system, but further upstream, is this sight – there is actually a small flow of water on the left mid pic, behind the green patch – recent rains have made some of the country green, with seedling crops reveling in the overnight downpour.

A strange sight in this part of New South Wales is this pair of Bottle Trees – they are usually seen in virtual desert country, but here they are planted beside an old homestead.