Anyone who likes opals has surely heard of Lightning Ridge a mineral locality in Australia known for some of the best opals in the world, especially rare black opals. This page is all about the history of Lightning Ridge. Pretty colored stones were first collected in 1873, but it wasn't until 1887 when the first opal was found.
Robert Moore, the manager of Muggarie Station, known now as Angledool, made the first record of, pretty coloured stones from Lightning Ridge in 1873. A former Ravenswood gold miner, He had picked up the stones on the Nebea Ridges and sent them to Sydney for evaluation, only to be informed they were of no commercial value.
The next reported find was in 1880 when Aboriginals brought topaz to the Parkers, the owners of Bangate Station. Mrs Parker, thinking they were diamonds, sent her brother, Ted Field, and a station hand named Hudson, to investigate the area around Lightning Ridge where she suspected the Aboriginals had found them. They discovered nothing as clear as the Aboriginals’ stones, but found a number of other attractive stones – however, the variety of the stone and its value were not followed up.
It wasn’t until 1887, when a piece of opal was discovered in a gravel pit which is now part of the famous Nine Mile field, that it came to the notice of the Mines Department.
