Below is the entire list of Johno's blog posts relating to Opal Fields.
12 March 2024 by Johno
Yowah nutsWhat is a Yowah NutA yowah nut is a form of Boulder opal. It is found in the shape of a nut and these nuts can vary in size up to the size of an avacado. They are usually hollow inside a shell of a form of ironstone and these hollows...
4 May 2023 by Johno
Visit to White Cliffs Opal Field in 2022In September 2022 we decided to visit friends in South Australia but our plans had to be changed for health reasons.The weather wasn't so good so we decided to head north as quickly as possible. Where to go? After a short deliberation we...
2 May 2023 by Johno
Free Lung Checks for Opal and Gemstone MinersHeart of Australia will be bringing its state of the art mobile medical imaging clinic - HEART 5- to Quilpie, Yowah and Cunnamulla to provide free lung checks for current small scale opal and gemstone miners in the region.As part of the initiative...
22 April 2023 by Johno
A short time ago I was contacted by an opal miner from Andamooka who related to me a story of his time at the opal field. The miner was Geoffrey Cotton and when asked if it was ok to post his story he provided me with the following. I am...
22 April 2023 by Johno
Tales from the opal fieldsThe opal fields are full of many different characters. They have been attracted to opal mining for many different reasons not just the lure of opal. One of the attractions is the ability to live a life free of most of the restrictions modern life imposes...
6 April 2023 by Johno
Searching for opal with a UV TorchI have always wanted to search for opal at night with a UV torch.Years ago I purchased a UV fluoroescent light and connected it to a battery source and tried it out at Lightning Ridge. No luck.The set up was quite cumbersome and didn't...
24 June 2020 by Johno
Coober Pedy is not all about opalWhen ever you hear the name Coober Pedy you immediately think Opal.Well you may need to think again. Air Speeder has announced it will operate a full scale fling car race in Coober pedi by the end of 2020. These flying cars are based on...
17 June 2020 by Johno
The Queensland Opal Fields The Queensland Opal Fields are found in a belt of deeply weathered cretaceous sedimentary rocks known as the "Winton Formation". The Cretaceous Period existed between 145 million years ago and 66 million years ago. The climate during this period was quite warm and obviously...
15 February 2020 by Johno
I guess there will always be disputes about who first discovered a lot of things and that apparently is what happened with the Coober Pedy Opal Field discovery.In looking through old newspaper stories on "Trove" I came upon this story written in the Argus of 9th July 1932. Hope...
9 January 2020 by Johno
The following is a summary of an article in the the newspaper "The Worker" of 1901 relating to the state of the opal industry in that year. The Opal Industry In 1901,an employee of "The Worker" newspaper carried out an interview with a Mr K L Lindsay of...
9 January 2020 by Johno
The following article on the Duck Creek Opal Field was published in "The Register" newspaper on Wednesday 24th June 1903. It is reproduced here to let you know what it was really like mining at Duck Creek in 1903. Duck Creek 1903 " The Duck Creek Opal Field...
2 January 2020 by Johno
This is the second article about White Cliffs Opal Field taken from an article in the Sydney Morning Herald in April 1894. It was written by " The Tourist" and details what they observed on their trip to White Cliffs. The second part of the article states a lot...
2 January 2020 by Johno
The following story was published in the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser of June 13, 1896 Extensive Opal Robbery "An opal robbery of a sensational character has been reported here by the Wilcannia visitors to the White Cliffs Races, who returned from the township on Saturday...
28 December 2019 by Johno
In looking through some old papers I came across the following article written in the Sydney Mail in 1894. It is an article describing a tourists visit to the White Cliffs Opal Field in that year. I hope you find it of interest. The article was researched by Rusheen...
30 July 2019 by Johno
In 1966, my cousin Ken and I, set off on our first opal fossicking trip to Queensland This story is detailed in the post titled My First Trip to the Opal Fields. As a result both of us have remained interested in the history of opal discovery and mining in...
4 October 2018 by Johno
A short time after I had published the story of Minnie Berrington I was contacted by Stuart Wattison who had carried out a lot of research into Minnies life. He had dug up copies of certificates including her Miners Right and this has added authentication of her story as told...
16 July 2018 by Johno
Noodling and Specking for Opal Opal mining in Australia is in decline compared to the earlier days. Most of us cannot afford to spend the large amounts of money required to mine for opal and would not have the expertise anyway, But noodling and specking for opal at Andamooka...
12 July 2018 by Johno
Stephen and Family Head for Lightning RidgeIn February 1965 , after returning to Sydney, Stephen Aracic quit his job at Dunlop Rubber. Feeling restless he set up his own business called Rozelle Radiator Repairs which operated satisfactorily for a while but then became quite a struggle. At the same time...
8 June 2018 by Johno
In a previous post I summarised the part of Stephen Aracic's book "Determined" which covered his early life in Bosnia and his emigration to Australia. See the post, Stepen Aracic "Determined Opal Miner. This post is a continued summary of the book and starts with Stephen Aracic's first trip to...
18 February 2018 by Johno
Mintabie Opal Town, one of South Australia's famous opal towns, is to be permanently closed and its residents forced to leave within a year. The South Australian Government found many of the residents had been living there illegally. The ABC reports that Mintabie Opal Town was an access point for...
13 January 2018 by Johno
Wherever you travel in the opal fields in Australia you will find old trucks dumped in the bush. Miners used whatever old trucks they could obtain cheaply and used them to cart mullock (dirt from their mines) or bits and pieces used in their mining ventures. Whenever they broke...
31 May 2017 by Johno
A Miners Recollection of the early days at Andamooka Opal Field Ross Coghill mined for opal for a short time at Andamooka in 1959 with his father Ben. After a few weeks Ross returned to Sydney, but his father stayed on. Ross has kindly written down his story so...
19 March 2017 by Johno
Old Trucks in the Opal Fields There are more old trucks on the opal fields than anywhere else. Early miners usually had little money, and being very mechanically minded, worked out ways to convert old trucks into useful vehicles for the opal fields. Some miners today still use...
13 January 2017 by Johno
It isn't easy, as a fossicker, to find an opal nowadays but it is not impossible. You are going to need some luck and a lot of patience, but it can be done. It is not much use wandering over the mullock heaps on the opal fields as many thousands...
19 January 2016 by Johno
Lightning Ridge Opal Fields The Coocoran Opal Field is just one of many fields in Lightning Ridge, where a number of different mining fields are spread over a significant area. If you wish to see the extent of mining in the area check out the site of NSW Resources...
7 December 2015 by Johno
Lightning Ridge Opal Field In 2015 Barbara and I found ourselves at Lightning Ridge again. This time we met up with friends, Dianne and Ken, who had not been here before so it was up to us to show them some of the treasures of "The Ridge'. Opal...
26 November 2015 by Johno
Charlie Nettleton Opal MinerCharlie Nettleton has been attributed as having sunk the first opal shaft at Lightning Ridge.It is commonly believed that Jack Murray, a boundary rider on Dunumbral Station, near Angledool NSW, was the first to find opal in the Lightning Ridge area, in a dry creek bed and...
28 July 2015 by Johno
Lunatic Hill The Lightning Ridge Opal Field has a large number of "mining locations' with very exotic names suggesting strange things happened in the past. Names such as "Deadmans, Revolver, P & O Jacks, Killing Yard, Hornet's Rush, Poverty Point and Frying Pan" can send the mind into a...
19 July 2015 by Johno
Opal Mining at Mintabie Opal Field I have written quite a few posts on the various opal fields in Australia to share information I have been able to glean over the years. I always hope someone will read something that will fire their interest and give them a little...
6 May 2015 by Johno
Glengarry Opal Field About 45 km from Lightning Ridge there is another extensive opal mining area where mining is still being carried out today. Fields have been established at Glengarry, Grawin, Sheepyard Flat, Carters Rush and Mulga Rush. These fields are all relatively close together and a lively community...
3 April 2015 by Johno
Cooper Pedy has just celebrated 100 years since it was founded as an opal field. Opal was found at what is now called Coober Pedy by 14 year old Willie Hutchison. He had been out prospecting for gold with his father and two other prospectors in January 2014. His father...
16 October 2014 by Johno
Lightning Ridge Opal Field 2014 As with many of our trips to the opal fields we did not really intend to go there. We set off to escape Melbourne's winter with our destination as Wooli, near Grafton, on the New South Wales coast. We took the kayaks and the...
15 October 2014 by Johno
Lightning Ridge Opal Field There are many interesting things to see and people to meet at Lightning Ridge and indeed at any of the opal fields. These towns are unique and have attracted a great diversity of characters. I don't think we have visited any of the opal towns...
13 October 2014 by Johno
Amigo's Castle at Lightning Ridge Opal Field The last time we visited Amigo's Castle was in the 1990's. Amigo was still constructing it with no finish date in sight. He also didn't like visitors at that time so Barbara was lucky to be invited in to take some photographs,...
10 March 2014 by Johno
The men who work in the opal fields are a hardy lot. The work is extremely hard and the weather conditions are deplorable for much of the time. They are often forced to live in primitive shelters and with few of the modern comforts that we have today. You would...
17 February 2014 by Johno
The opal field towns were established at a time when building materials were very scarce and hence the early architects had to very inventive and had to recycle almost everything they could find. The first miners arrived on foot or by horse, or in the case of Andamooka, by primitive...
13 February 2014 by Johno
As you travel around any of the opal fields, particularly Andamooka, Coober Pedy and Mintabie. you will find a proliferation of old abandoned vehicles. Miners have obviously purchased these at some time to use on the opal fields and when they have become un-repairable they have been left to rot....
2 February 2014 by Johno
Most of us who visit the opal fields do not have the expertise or knowledge to actually mine for opal. A lot of us though, do have a desire to find a piece of opal. There is a way that this desire can become reality, and that is by noodling...
2 January 2014 by Johno
Lightning Ridge is located in New South Wales, north of the township of Walgett and south of the Queensland border. It is renowned as the largest known deposit of black opal in the world. Black opal is found in much smaller amounts at a number of other localities such as...
20 October 2013 by Johno
It was October and we were off on another trip to Andamooka. Normally we wouldn't go there at this time of the year as the temperature can be well into the thirties but there was to be a memorial service for Brian Tansell, an old time miner at Andamooka, and...
23 August 2013 by Johno
Minnie Berrington Minnie Berrington, first woman opal miner at Andamooka, wrote a book about her adventures in Coober Pedy and Andamooka. This book is called "Stones of Fire" A Woman's Experience in Search of Opal. This book was published in 1958 and is well worth reading to gain...
14 July 2013 by Johno
White Cliffs is a small town located 95 km north of Wilcania in New South Wales. Opal was 1st discovered there on 1889 and by 1897 there were thousands of miners in the area. The opal was found in white sandstone country indicating it had once been part of a...
1 July 2013 by Johno
It was late May and the weather in Melbourne was getting colder and wetter. It was time to escape north to a better climate and to do some fossicking and fishing. Barbara and I packed the caravan and Hilux with all of the essentials for an unplanned trip. Plenty...
14 May 2013 by Johno
There are many amazing sights around Lightning Ridge, but few better than Amigo's Castle. Vittorio Stefanato, known locally as "Amigo", opal miner and castle builder, started his project in 1985 when he started getting tired of opal mining. Initially he sourced his stone from his mining lease but soon...
8 April 2013 by Johno
Yowah is a small town in south west Queensland and is famous for the Yowah Nut which is only found here and nowhere else. The yowah nut is a relatively small, hollow ironstone concretion in the shape of a nut. They occur in closely packed horizontal layers with sandstone overlaying...
13 February 2013 by Johno
It seems that the discovery of opal in Australia was often due to chance with many of the discoverers either looking for something else or drilling for water in the outback. When we understand how opal was formed it is not a surprise. Most opal is buried deep beneath the...
24 January 2013 by Johno
Barbara and I love to travel in the outback. We don't go in for the arduous 4 wheel drive trips, crossing sand dunes and putting ourselves at risk, but we do love to head off and see where our travel takes us. In 2004 we set off up the Oodnadatta...
23 January 2013 by Johno
Whenever you visit the opal fields there is much more to see than just opal mines and shops selling opal. There are all sorts of amazing and innovative machinery. There are all sorts of interesting buildings and there are other "things". This post includes pictures of machines, cars, buildings and...
16 January 2013 by Johno
In 2012, my wife Barbara and I went on a trip into central Australia to escape the wet and cold of Melbourne. As with most of our trips we tend to get diverted into at least one opal field. On this trip I was lucky enough to get to visit...
9 January 2013 by Johno
We have driven on the Stuart Highway many times but have always sailed past the turn off to Mintabie just a few kilometres past Marla. This time we were determined to visit Mintabie as it is only about 35 km off the Stuart Highway. We camped at the Marla...
10 September 2011 by Johno
In the early 1930's there were a few miners working at Andamooka. One of these miners was an old European who lived in an old dugout away from the main centre. He was regularly seen walking across the hill to collect water from the well in the main centre, but...
13 May 2011 by Johno
In my teens I had a strong interest in fossicking for gemstones. This led to gold panning and gemstone fossicking trips to Beechworth, Walhalla and other similar places, In 1966 my cousin Ken and I decided we should try and find some opal as we had read about its...
9 January 2011 by Johno
Andamooka is situated approximately 360 km from Port Augusta. It can be reached by turning off the Stuart Highway at Pimba and travelling along sealed roads via Woomera and Roxby Downs. Andamooka was one of the later opal fields found in Australia.Opal was first found on the Andamooka Station...
2 May 2010 by Johno
The photograph below is of the White Dam Opal field. In July 2007, my wife Barbara and I visited Andamooka. We camped in the Andamooka Caravan Park which is on the main road into Andamooka township. Andamooka is a small town but still has 2 hotels, a supermarket,...