This is Lightning Ridge, in northern New South Wales, Australia. This is the only
place on earth where black opal, Australia's national gemstone is mined
commercially. The town's awesome name comes not only from the opal-bearing
ridges and relentless summer thunderstorms, but from a specific
incident that happened over a hundred years ago.
The current town of Lightning Ridge is the third incarnation of this mining
community.
I spoke with Barbara, secretary of the Lightning Ridge historical society, to learn
more about Lightning Ridge's previous lives
This is the early map of old town that was officially known as Wallangulla
the first settlement Lightning Ridge. And this is as the government surveyor found
it when he came to survey a new town.
Jack Murray is said to be the man who found the opal, and he was a boundary rider on
the local property, where we're standing today, he was out setting rabbit traps
when he picked up the pretty rocks. He was in this general area which is the
highest point -- if we traveled up this ridge -- it's the highest point in the district
and this was really the beginning of our settlement here at Lightning Ridge. He's
noted
what sort of structure they lived in: a bag hut, we have tents, bark hut
he tells us about the different services that were available there was a billiard
room, with storekeepers, a carrier butcher, cold drink shop -- that would have
been hops and cordial -- eating-house, opal, cutters opal buyers buildings that were
canvas wrapped around cypress pine posts, bark roofs, very transportable. The
school was active I suppose for 3 or 4 years, and it was about 1909 that the second
settlement sprang up at the Three Mile, along the ridge and just below. The
original Wallangulla became old town because it was declining. Sadly no
tangible evidence left of the old town, but I'm told by reliable sources in the
seventies people came out here and found little chipping piles, where the miners
would work their opal at their camps
and I think if you came out with a metal detector, you'd find a few coins and buttons
and who knows what else.
The site of the old town is located on the Red Car Door Tour and is marked with a
commemorative plaque.
The Three-Mile Flat was one of the earliest and most fertile opal fields so
it's only natural that a community formed on site as people moved from the
old town of Wallangulla to the newer opal field. So here we are in the site
of the settlement known as Nettleton. They had followed along from the first
settlement, the fellows working along the ridge, they came this way, but Nettleton
achieved a population -- I'm not quite sure what the statistic would be -- but they had
the commercial buildings, they had a haberdashery, there was certainly a
boarding house, the school started 1910 to 1913, got up to 38 children. This hut,
or "camp", was the home of miner Fred Bodel, who lived here from nineteen
sixteen to nineteen seventy-three. While it was built after Nettleton's peak years
in 1910 to 1912, it's still representative of the kinds of buildings
that people lived in the second settlement. Today it's very quiet on the
Three Mile. By 1913 the government insisted that the people move into the
new town that had been surveyed, take up the leasehold blocks. There were no more
commercial permits, and the businesses were told to wind up and come into the
new town. The settlement Nettleton was named for Charlie Nettleton, the man who
first identified the potential of black opal in the area.
"Nettleton"; that name came along sometime after. We do read in the Walgett
Spectator that even in the nineteen thirties the place was referred to as
Nettleton, even though no one lived down here apart from a few campers. There was
no longer a proper settlement, but you can be sure there would have been
remnants of that settlement. These few scattered buildings are not the only
physical evidence of Nettleton: And lucky for the Historical Society, we have
bought from the man who found it
the brass postal seal, it would have been used with wax, that was found down here
in the gutter. This chap was looking for opal, you can be sure, but he found
something much more valuable to us at the Historical Society, and in our town.
It's the only tangible evidence of this place as it was thriving back in 1910,
1912.
Nettleton is located off the Yellow Car Door Tour, and is part of the Old Chum's
Walking Track through the Three Mile Flat opal field.
By 1908 the old town of Wallangulla was being abandoned, the second
settlement, Nettleton, was growing in size and the local government chose to survey
a new town area, somewhere close, but away from the mining fields, somewhere least
likely to be opal bearing. The surveying continued, it was equidistant land
from the two settlements, like a triangle, and it was in 1908 that the settlement
was gazetted as Wallangulla. So the new town re-used the old name of Wallangulla,
but another name had been in use informally for many years. Back in 1998
the Historical Society decided it was important to enlighten people as to the
name: Lightning Ridge; so we chose this site as described by Katie Langloh Parker
her legendary tales tell us of aboriginal lore on the Narran River, up
around Angledool, Bangate Station
Katie Langloh Parker lived on Bangate Station with her husband, and she was
very connected to the land. The Parkers were early people on the land north of
Lightning Ridge, back in the eighteen seventies. They actually passed the site
of a break in the ridge, where the lightning struck, and in My Bush Book the
reference is: "Lightning Ridge was so named because in one of these terrible
inland storms, lightning killed six hundred sheep, the shepherd and the dog."
While we have no way of knowing for sure if this story is true,
it certainly is possible. In 1918, two lightning strikes in Utah killed 654
sheep, and in August of 2016 a strike in Norway killed 323 reindeer.
Lightning Ridge was gazetted and became the town's official name in 1963.
Although the area had been referred to informally as Lightning Ridge as early as
the 1910s, when the settlement was still known as Wallangulla. In fact, the
name "Wallangulla" is a local aboriginal word which has been
translated to mean "hidden fire stick", which many believe to be a reference to
a lightning strike.
These are blocks today that are for sale for residents,
I think it'll be very sad when somebody builds on these blocks, but we do have
the stories, and we have our plaque here that shows a little bit of the layout
and reminds us of how old Old Town is. If you visit Lightning Ridge, and you should
visit Lightning Ridge, you should stop by and visit the Lightning Ridge Historical
Society's cottage in Morilla Street, and learn more about the history of the Home
of the Black Opal.
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