14 Jan 10 - Lightning Ridge

By Lou: Our first impression of opal mining town Lightning Ridge was "oh dear". Yet the first 2 locals we ran into told us how they had arrived in Lightning Ridge x years ago and fell in love with the place. "Oh!" we nodded politely while thinking “What were you thinking?”. However, as we explored the town the next day we became quite taken by the place. First stop was John Murray's art gallery. Bit of a larrikin local who captures the colours and feel of the place very well. Very outback and earthy which appeals. The town also has some self-guided tours, identified by coloured and numbered car doors stuck to trees, and we found the history of the place really interesting. The physical environment looks timeless: there are white mullock heaps (the removed earth from mine shafts) everywhere and rusty hoists and windlasses and LOTS of abandoned trucks.


Apparently it's around $500pa to buy a claim and although you are not meant to build a permanent dwelling, everyone does, and usually out of recycled materials, which leads to very low overheads. But what looks makeshift and dodgy and even abandoned often disguises a welcoming cavern of treasures, animate and inanimate alike. We visited an underground mine where a fellow has created dozens of sculptures out of the sandstone. A hodge podge of themes (African animals, Egyptian mummies, Superheros, Disney characters) but the dedication impressive none the less.


Visiting local art galleries or opal shops and chatting to the artists/owners was also really insightful into the passion (read fever) people have for the hunt for opal. Despite it being stinking hot and in the outback, ‘the Ridge’ boasts an Olympic size swimming pool with a theme park to boot. Sam was very excited so now we can cross Seaworld off the To Do list. We also swam in an artesian bath which at 41.5 degrees celcius was a tad hotter than my ideal soaking temperature but invigorating as it was brief. All up we got our fill of experience at Lightning Ridge and it was nice to leave with a higher regard for it than when we arrived.