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There’s opal in them thar holes
The latest census put the population at 2492 but the big sign on the road into town defiantly declares: ‘‘Lightning Ridge population ?’’
More than a century since its founding, the colourful mining community still dances to a beat as rare, mysterious and anarchic as the beautiful black opal gouged from the earth beneath the outback scrub of north-west NSW.
The Ridge revels in the fact that nobody knows how many people are there trying to get rich or just get off the grid amid the Mad Max-style landscape of the opal fields.
And after years of depressed opal prices and low production, it is also revelling in its first opal rush in more than a decade. The community is buzzing about a new field called Bull’s Rush on the property Barfield, 75 kilometres south-west of the Ridge.
Twelve prospecting blocks totalling 4663 hectares have been carved out of Barfield and when prospecting started on one of those blocks last month, a small team of miners ‘‘drilled up some colour’’, to use local mining terminology.
‘‘We are all very excited,’’ said Peter Sutton, who was part of the team that found the opal seam as they sank more than 100 holes over the 28 days their prospecting licence gave them exclusive use of the block.
Mr Sutton said the opal at Bull’s Rush is the best he has ever dug up. ‘‘It’s nice and bright and good colour, predominantly a lot of red in it, which is the most valuable of the opal.
‘‘When we went in [to the mining registrar’s office] and made the claim ... the word got out and excitement was experienced by everybody. There’s a bit of a rush on. Opal fever is a real thing, particularly when you find a few for yourself.’’
All the miners in Mr Sutton’s team have grabbed their entitlement of two 50-metre by 50-metre mineral claims and a flurry of mining has begun. When another 28-day prospecting licence became available last week, there was a crowd queued outside the registrar’s office before it opened and 134 names went into a ballot.
Anthony Melonas, a delighted member of the ballot-winning consortium, said: ‘‘These are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. You can feel the electricity in the air. The town’s picked up. It’s like the old days where everyone who’s a miner is excited. This field could be huge.
‘‘It’s not a maybe, the opal’s already been drilled up. It was very good quality. Because it’s the start of the field we don’t know how big it is yet. It’s given a boost that the miners needed.’’
The find had come at the perfect time, Mr Melonas said, because the Chinese market has started showing interest in black opals.
Maxine O’Brien, the secretary manager of the Lightning Ridge Miners’ Association, said one of the puzzling things about black opal was that it defied the rules of supply and demand.
‘‘Opal is a weird and wonderful thing,’’ she said. ‘‘The more opal that’s come out of the ground in the past, there’s tended to be a higher price miners got for their opal.
‘‘The main impact [of the Bull’s Rush find] will be to encourage a lot more prospecting in and around that area. Increased prospecting means hopefully more fields will be found and there will be increased production, which will help us to grow and sustain markets.’’
And Mr Melonas predicts there will be more big crowds outside the mining registrar’s office. ‘‘I’d say that will be a monthly occurrence now. There will be a big queue. They might even start a sausage sizzle there.’’
