Lightning Ridge

We have visited Lightning Ridge a few years back and at that time took the town bus tour and had a good explore around Grawin and Sheepyards, as well as having a scratch around to try and find some opal.  Therefore, we only gave ourselves one full day in the town before continuing on our way.

Lightning Ridge seems to be the destination of choice for Bloggers/Zoomers/Scrub Stitchers, with me being the sixth to visit the town in the last month.

We had two places we particularly wanted to visit this time.  The first was the Chambers of the Black Hand.  We had heard nothing but rave reviews about it. The name had me intrigued.  Apparently, an Englishman by the name of Ron Canlin, with a background in the Naval Special Forces, ended up at Lightning Ridge, just for a short time, and ended up buying the Black Hands Mine in 1982.  

The mine was a dud, so he decided to open it to the public.  He hand dug a set of stairs down into the mine.  It is a very long set of stairs and you end up 18 metres below the surface.  There are still mine tours, but we weren’t interested in that.

He signed off on the date he completed the stairs and small gallery at their base.

He created a room at the bottom of the stairs and discovered that the sandstone walls were soft enough to carve.  He had done some whittling of wood previously, but has not formal art training.  First he created a Welcome banner, then he carved his Navy regimental insignia.  He used the bread and butter knife out of his lunch box.  All the carvings are done with that one knife and some forks.  He went through quite a few forks, creating textured backgrounds.

The original knife, with the opals attached to the handle, is held in the gift shop.  It is surprising how much of the blade is still intact.

He continued to add to the carvings, improving his skills as he went along.  There are now many different chambers featuring all sorts of things.  Some are just the natural stone, while others are painted.  Come along for an explore.

There are several Buddha in one chamber and they have been blessed by a representative of the Dalai Lama. 

The collection of Prime Ministers is surprisingly up to date.  Apparently, the most recent carving in the Chambers was done in 2022.

The miner represents Ron, while Herman was the fellow that started and ran The Opal Cave, where they sell opals, funnily enough.

To amuse the kids, there are several “Where’s Wally” pictures dotted around the chambers.  We found a few, but I’m guessing we missed many more.  They were in rather hidden little spots.

Ron is now in his 80s and lives down the south coast.  Apparently, he still visits Lightning Ridge, but is not doing any more carvings.

We were not disappointed and the Chambers lived up to their reviews.  We are so very glad that we visited.

Our next port of call was the Cactus Garden.  This was created in the 1980s, with some of the plants being up to 60 years old.

This one is a Saguaro, which is the Arizona State Flower.  This specimen is over 100 years old.  Most of the cactus were from the Americas.

And that concluded our pre planned touristy bits.

Having read the information brochure on the area and checking out the website, it appeared that there was Social Bowls at the Bowling Club on Sunday afternoons, and it was Sunday.  However, when Mick phoned, it turned out that they had played in the morning instead, as it was Mother’s Day.  They said he could still go down for a roll up in the afternoon and a few others would probably turn up.  I went along to keep him company and do some crochet.

The Bowling Club is rather fancy for the area and is currently undergoing even further improvements.  They have one grass green and a very flash artificial surface green under cover with fans and misters.  The fans and misters weren’t on, but we appreciated the shade.  It was a pleasant temperature, but would have been a bit warm otherwise.

There were even a couple of John Murray murals.

No one else turned up, so I had a roll up with him.  No crochet was done. We had a lovely afternoon rolling back and forwards and I am delighted that I actually beat him on a couple of ends.  It was a really pleasant way to spend some time without being touristy.  Afterwards we had a nice yarn with a couple of local bowlers and learnt that they have a very rich bowls tournament, The Black Opal Classic, which was depicted in one of the murals.

Our final destination for the day was to soak away the aches and pains in the bore baths, on dusk.

All I can say is that they are HOT!!! 

There is the large pool, pictured here and a smaller, cooler one.  I could only manage to dangle my feet in the cooler one… not even get in.  Mick, on the other hand hopped in the big pool.  Even the locals were saying it was very hot on the day.  Oh well, it was still a nice place to sit and we had a nice chat with others that were there.

And so ended our time in Lightning Ridge.  We would be back on the road the next day.