Lightning Ridge New South Wales
There is nowhere in Australia quite like Lightning Ridge. As a town, it is the most bizarre, and compelling, combination of rural sophistication and wildly eccentric. The main street is sealed and curbed and has rows of regular shops – there is a lot of money around. Then there is the eccentric – the house made from bottles and the rough cement “castle” of the Astronomer’s Monument.
You are also surrounded by a moonscape of mullock heaps under which literally hundreds of obsessed miners work. They search and dig for the black opals which have made the town famous.
Lightening Ridge – Like no other Opal Centre
Lightning Ridge is unlike the other major opal centres – Coober Pedy, Andamooka, White Cliffs – as it is accessible. Consequently, it attracts over 80,000 tourists, visitors and itinerants each year. This means that it has good quality motels, an array of souvenir and gift shops and some good restaurants. There is a veneer of civilisation designed to meet the needs of visitors and fossickers who come for the winter. In summer the temperature soars and the itinerants retreat to their cooler summer homes.
Lightning Ridge is known to be the only place in Australia, and one of the few places in the world, where the highly prized black opal is found. The black opal is prized not only because of its rarity but because it has carbon and iron oxide trace elements. These produce a very dark stone with hints of blue, green and red.
Lightning Ridge Opals
Lightning Ridge area offers plenty of adventure, history and outback majesty. From fossicking for opals to admiring art in an underground cave, there is plenty to do. You can relax in naturally-heated springs, fish on the Darling River and much more in this unique and colourful region.
Take a Guided Tour!
Explore a working opal mine on a guided tour at The Big Opal and then try your luck fossicking. You can see rare and precious gems at the Opal Bin, where raw opals are polished into shimmering gemstones.
Visit in July for the annual Lightning Ridge Opal Festival, a celebration of Lightning Ridge and its luminous opal industry. Browse stalls selling gemstones, lapidary supplies and more, or join in the fun of the Opal Queen Ball.
Lightning Ridge area is popular for its artesian bore baths, where naturally-heated water springs from the Great Artesian Basin below. Visit the Chambers of the Black Hand to see fabulous carvings in an underground mine.
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Lightning Ridge NSW, Australia
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