I don’t know if anyone ever struck it rich in the old days – or even the new days – by hitting a seam of opal while sinking a dugout dunny shaft.

But if it’s going to happen anywhere, the chances of it happening in Andamooka are better than average.

As long as the hole is at least 3 metres deep. That’s when it’ll hit the ancient and now opal-ridden seabed* lying beneath the surface of one of the driest parts of the driest state of the driest continent on earth.

But maybe that’s what makes Andamooka opal – a variety found only here – the most stable matrix opal in the world. The Queen’s Opal was found in Andamooka – a large piece cut and polished to over 200 carats, then made into several pieces of jewellery presented to Queen Elizabeth II, now part of the Crown Jewels.

Although there’s no record of whether or not the stone was found in a dunny shaft!

Every photo of Andamooka I’d ever seen before shows an arid outback landscape. But as the state’s resident rainmakers** en route to the warm and sunny northern winter, we’d arrived in Woomera the evening before in the middle of a rainstorm and steady rain that continued throughout the night.

So I’m still wondering what it’s like to be dry in one of the driest parts of the driest state of the driest continent on earth. The rain continued on and off through the uninspiring terrain along the 85+ km (53 miles) stretch of sealed road from Woomera to Roxby Downs, and then the 30 km (18.6 miles) to Andamooka where the one sealed road carried enough mud to turn it into a virtual dirt (read: mud) road!

But that’s where the exploration gene paid off. BIG time.

I noticed a familiar shape through the raindrops. Hang on – was that REALLY a dunny I saw before me?

Andamooka’s Historical Reserve preserves a number of early dwellings built – or more accurately, compiled – after discovery in 1930 of some of the finest Aussie Opal in the world. Which anyone who’s ever studied Australian history won’t need ME to tell them was also the time of the Great Depression.

Lack of money and an almost tree-free landscape made early opal miners inventive with building materials; and the summer heat – clocked at 46 degrees C (~115 degrees F) – forced many buildings – dugouts – partially underground.

But however rough and ready the structures and difficult the conditions in this remote Outback outpost nearly 600km (373 miles) north of Adelaide, Andamooka’s dunnies gave the opal fields a touch of civilisation. One dwelling built on three levels even had an outside dunny clearly visible through the window from the inside dunny! Luxury!!

Perhaps more important, however, position and placement meant the miner could keep an eye on the action while answering nature’s call.

Although Andamooka Opal was first discovered after a rare thunderstorm, tragically history didn’t repeat itself on our visit – leaving me without another precious piece of Australia’s national gem. And while I didn’t look very hard, nor did I find anything worth keeping down the dunny!

The muddy roads also nixed a visit either the opal fossicking area or the nearby (normally) dry salt lake Lake Torrens.

BUT … it’s probably appropriate that my only real tourist experience in Andamooka involved Scenic Aussie Loos!!

Yes, it’s unknown (to me, at least) whether anyone ever got rich from finding opal in a dunny shaft.

But I’d like to think that somewhere out there, never recorded in the Andamooka annals, is an opal miner who struck it lucky while digging out a dunny.

Because that’d make Andamooka’s classic Aussie Outback loo view one of the most valuable in the world!

* Much of the information in this post came from a tourist brochure about the Andamooka Opal Fields, compiled by Anne Louise Potter and Trevor Peek in November 2009

** It rains so often when we visit a new place that Pilchard & I are considering hiring ourselves out as drought-breakers! Call me!!

Want MORE?

• More about Andamooka, South Australia 
• Opal Hotspots in Australia
• More Australian Scenic Public Toilets
• MY BOOK: ‘Aussie Loos with Views!’
• More Andamooka and South Australian Outback Photos on Flickr

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The post Dugouts, Dirt and Dunnies! 3 reasons to visit Andamooka, South Australia appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

Australian Opal

I didn’t understand all the fuss about SiO₂.nH₂O until 2004.

That’s when I first visited Coober Pedy.  It’s slap bang in the middle of absolutely freakin’ nowhere in the South Australian Outback.  And it’s where I first found a piece of SiO₂.nH₂O I wanted to take home with me.

You might know SiO₂.nH₂O better as Hydrous Silica. Or maybe Opal!  Down here, diamonds AREN’T a girl’s best friend. 95% of the world’s opal is sourced from downunder, so Australia comes by its national gemstone honestly!  Australian Opal Rules!

Back in Coober Pedy, there was only one thing standing between me and my Opal. A small matter of $AUD800+. A bit much for my wallet, even if it was already a tasteful ring that actually fitted me.

But then I had a scathingly brilliant idea!  Why not find my OWN piece of opal and make my OWN jewellery? It couldn’t be THAT hard, could it?

So over the next few years I disregarded the legendary BAD luck attached to precious opal. My quest took me to five Aussie opal towns, also slap bang in the middle of nowhere. That’s because the ideal climatic and geological factors in which cryptocrystalline hydrous silica (yep, that’s yet another way of saying OPAL!) forms seem to occur in the harshest, most desolate and inhospitable land on earth.

Where else but the Australian Outback!

Was my quest successful? Well … here’s a set of random adventures from each Australian Opal town!

1. Coober Pedy, SA – Australian Opal’s capital

I awoke in perfect pitch blackness and waited for my eyes to adjust to the light.

They didn’t.

That’s what happens in a windowless room hewn from the solid rock under Coober Pedy in the middle of the night. But for the absence of shackles we could have been in a dungeon. Although the locals who’d built underground to beat the heat were probably used to it.

Meanwhile, the noise from above that had woken me – a pinging sound like pebbles on an iron roof – continued.

I put aside thoughts of poison pills, ventilator shafts and being buried alive. If anyone wanted to do me in, it’d be simpler to dump me in a disused mine-shaft!

Most of South Australia’s 80% contribution to the world opal market is mined in Coober Pedy.  It’s a pock-marked paradise where the golf course (‘blacks’ instead of ‘greens’) enjoys reciprocal rights with St Andrews of Scotland.

This isolated town has what I believe to the world’s only underground campground.  The Big Winch also has the distinction of being first place in the world where we successfully demonstrated a complete lack of opal-finding expertise.

And the noise?? Rain, of course!

2. Yowah, QLD – Australian Opal Exclusive

From our vantage point high above on the Bluff, the small town was almost lost in an endless sprawl of vegetation.  It promised total disorientation if you left the main road in.

Below us was the only place in the world where Yowah Nuts – small rocky nuggets of opal – are found.

Stay in Yowah for a full-on Outback experience to go with your Yowah Nuts.  This town is SO remote it’s visited by the Royal Flying Doctor Service.  The only fuel in town at the caravan park is only available to their paying guests!

I didn’t expect to meet an ex-legionnaire, whose anecdotes about life in the Foreign Legion, including the true meaning of ‘decimate’, kept us entertained over lunch at the town’s only cafe!

After that, getting a fossickers license seemed a bit anti-climactic.

Luckily for inept unlucky opal-mining tragics like me, opal can be purchased locally.

SO … I was forced to descend into true tourist behaviour.  After passing up several fiendishly expensive cuts, I bought my first ever piece of opal.

A multi-coloured shard of Yowah Nut cunningly carved into a pendant.

Although I have to stand right for the sun to illuminate its colours, at only $AU25, it’s a reminder of what awaits our return to Yowah.

3. Lightning Ridge, NSW

As we left the Lightning Ridge Visitor Information Centre, I was asked the dumbest question in living memory.

‘D’ya reckon we’ll like it here, love?’ the the most inebriated of a clutch of beer-swigging Grey Nomads asked.  He drunkenly staggered against the door as he held it open for me.

Say what?

But Lightning Ridge is memorable for a whole lot of other reasons. We followed the ‘Car Door’ self drive tours to the Corcoran Opal fields – the richest stretch of black-opal-bearing soil on earth.  We also saw enough quirky attractions to make us wonder exactly what was in the super-heated bore water bubbling up from the Great Artesian Basin way below into the hot baths full of tourists exhausted after a day in the diggings.

Quirky Lightning Ridge

Think Flying Combi, the Chambers of the Black Hand, the Black Queen Experience and Amigo’s Castle! AND it’s home of the self-proclaimed ONLY black-opal-mining Cactus Farmers in the WORLD!! Black opal requires a tonne of equipment to reach the depths at which it is found.  So our short stay was spent exploring the place where legendary and prolific Aussie author, Ion Idriess worked and wrote ‘Lightning Ridge’ over 100 years ago.

Ironic, though, that any one of his books is now worth more than all the Australian opal Pilchard and I have EVER scavenged put together!!

4. White Cliffs, NSW

Call me a coward, but I can’t face the overhang of a LOOONG ladder tilting backwards into oblivion with nothing between me and the bottom of the mine shaft.  That’s why I did my ‘research’ on the surface while brave boy Pilchard went below for a mine tour.

The good news is there’s almost as much opal on the surface these days.  It’s hidden in the cast-offs surrounding the deserted mine-shafts scattered over the surface, if you don’t mind worthless smaller pieces! Tragically, the collection of ‘colour’ Pilchard and I found after a hard day digging won’t even make jewellery, let alone our fortune.  But I finally got the thrill of the quest and why people keep coming back for more.

Besides, White Cliffs is the only place on earth with unique Australian Opal Pineapples!

As a special treat, the owners of the Red Earth Opal Showroom and Cafe who’d shown Pilchard through their mine, threw in an above-ground mine-shaft tour for free for me.

A real bargain considering it normally costs 50c!

And what’s NOT to love about the place I spent 7½ minutes in paradise?

5. Quilpie, QLD

A bakery run by a gun shearer who still holds the world record for the most sheep shorn in one day is one of many distractions from Quilpie’s main business of mining boulder opal. Hell, with its own HOT Artesian Bore baths and in-season entertainment, you don’t even have to leave the Caravan Park to find yourself a good time!

It’s also not far from Eromanga – arguably furthest spot from the ocean in any direction in Australia.  With attractions like these, you could stay in Quilpie for a week without even thinking about Opal.

The ‘Deuces Wild’ Opal Mine is SO remote a rescue party is sent out (at your expense) if you’re not back by 5:00pm. The distraction of Bourkes Parrot, a lifer for twitcher Pilchard, was almost enough excitement without hunting for the elusive opal.

On the claim, our ever-growing opal-mining ‘expertise’ resulted in some seams of ‘colour’ running through the rock. But while they look nice in the sun, I’m not sure how they’ll become my Opal Ring …

The Quest for Australian Opal Continues

To date, the unkind could successfully argue my quest for my own piece of SiO₂.nH₂O jewelry has been a fools errand! But in the process, I’ve discovered an intriguing sub-culture out on the edge which I’m not yet done exploring.

SO … watch this space – and maybe next time I’ll hit the Australian Opal jackpot!

Want MORE?

• Opal according to Wikipedia
• Coober Pedy, South Australia
• Yowah, Queensland
• Lightning Ridge, New South Wales
• White Cliffs, New South Wales
• Quilpie, Queensland
• MORE Aussie ABC!

The post Aussie ABC: O is for Opal! appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

Think of ‘Australia’ and ‘Paradise’ in the same sentence and I’ll bet you’re thinking tropical. White sandy beaches, palms and and clear blue sea. Colourful fish, corals and lush rainforest. Balmy, moonlit nights and cocktails under the stars.

But that splendid vision – while undeniably fabulous – is only one of many versions of utopia in this country of diverse delights. We never know where we’ll find it next – so we keep our minds AND eyes wide open!!

Even so, to discover the ultimate paradise in remote Outback opal mining town White Cliffs was a surprise, even by our standards.

But to find it lasted for exactly 7-and-a-half minutes was completely unexpected!

In the depths of the remote New South Wales Outback, White Cliffs isn’t the sort of place you stumble across by accident, unless you’re lost or maybe on the run. But whoever you are, and however you arrive, there’s a paradise for everyone in this small (~200 population) community’s many attractions.

For a start there’s the scenery. The endless blue skies over the vast moonscape of the opal mines, pocked with slag heaps and scattered with genuine Aussie dunnies. The colours and light unique to this archetypal outback landscape have inspired more than one artist and photographer! But this lasts WAAAAAAY more than 7-and-a-half minutes!

Then there’s the opal. The first commercial opal field in Australia, and the only place in the world where ‘White Cliffs Pineapple’ opal is found, the unbelievable landscape left by thousands of abandoned mines still attracts opal hunters.

But we didn’t even have to leave the excellent Opal Pioneer Caravan Park to find it – a few questions about the town’s attractions and the manager was pressing bits of opal into my open and willing hands! Even our amateurish fossicking field foray was ‘successful’ – even though the few bits of ‘colour’ we found didn’t amount to a hill of beans in the REAL world of opal trading!! Paradise could be a chunk of high quality black opal – but I’d want a bit more than 7-and-a-half minutes worth for the kind of money I’d need to get me one!

But it’s almost worth NOT finding your own opal when the local dealers offer world class experiences. The 50,000 stubbies* from which Joe’s Opal Showroom is made house fabulous opal jewellery, gifts and artwork, for example. And (arguably) the cheapest above ground opal mine tour in the world is on offer at the Red Earth Opal Showroom and Cafe!

A fine substitute for those (all right, ME) too gutless to follow Pilchard’s lead down a 45 ft shaft on a shaky iron ladder into the depths of the owner’s mine …

And there’s more unique experiences up for grabs on the self-guided White Cliffs Heritage trail tour. The interpretive signs give fascinating snippets of local history and the tour takes you through all the town’s vantage points – and the colourful array of opal field dwellings. Ironically, despite being the first of its kind in Australia (and possibly the world), the innovative White Cliffs Solar Power station is no longer operational, with town power supplied from the grid.

But the golf course IS functional – and provides a unique challenge to those more accustomed to conventional courses. But enticing as these attractions are, do they comprise the ultimate paradise? No way! And even the most experienced golfer needs more than 7-and-a-half minutes to get round THIS course!!!

We didn’t need the helpful ranger at the eco-friendly Paroo-Darling National Park Visitor’s Centre to tell us we’d landed in bird watcher’s heaven! The Nankeen Kestrel on the ‘White Cliffs’ sign at the town entrance did that! As did Orange Chat, Stubble Quail and Horsfield’s Bushlark feeding in the gutters on the Tibooburra road, and Chestnut-crowned Babbler and Chirruping Wedgebill rampaging in the scrub around the fossicking pits.

The early morning splendour of this water-bird filled dam and sightings of dry country nomad White-fronted Honeyeater made up for the tyre-shreddingly rugged road to massive Lake Peery – full on our June 2011 visit.

Meaning we didn’t get to see the artesian mound springs on the lake bed that provide a habitat for the rare salt pipe wort (eriocaulon carsonii) when the lake is dry! Paradise, yes. Ultimate? Not quite …

So what DOES the ultimate 7-and-a-half minute paradise look like?

Before we got to White Cliffs, the magnificent setting of our campsite at Lake Pamamaroo made up for the nearest loo being 1 km and the nearest fresh water 16 km down the road. And after 6 nights of severely curtailed ablutions also due to a) low temperatures; b) the absence of a shower block; and c) minimal gas and water? Well … you figure it out!! The excitement of having possibly the only Milo-swigging, bird watching, pyromaniac, fisherman partner on the continent was starting to wear off …

So as darkness fell on our first night in White Cliffs and the temperature plummeted, Pilchard and I headed for the caravan park amenities. Where for the absolute bargain price of $1, a wondrous heart-stoppingly blissful geyser of HOT water poured through the shower. For exactly 7-and-a-half minutes!!

That’s what I’m talking about! Paradise!!

And not a palm tree in sight!

Want MORE?

• Where is White Cliffs?
• White Cliffs general information
• White Cliffs Scenic Public Toilet
• White Cliffs ‘Pineapple’ opal
• Paroo-Darling National Park and Lake Peery
• White Cliffs Solar Power Station
• Lake Pamamaroo, Menindee Lakes

* One stubby = one 375 ml beer bottle

The post 7-and-a-half Minutes in Paradise! White Cliffs, New South Wales appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

The exacting recreational pursuit of opal fossicking demands much of its devotees. Physical strength, mental fortitude, stamina and courage at the absolute minimum.

Oh, and the ability to cross your legs and hold on for grim death when nature calls!

So it was a relief (in more ways than one!) to find that the ability to cross ones legs for hours was not required on the opal fields at White Cliffs!

Spending a day making your fortune on the remote western New South Wales moonscape of the White Cliffs opal fossicking area need not, therefore, result in a nasty urinary tract infection – because these opal fields are CIVILISED!!

Well … almost!

This loo isn’t quite the Australian Scenic Public Toilet to which regular readers have become accustomed!

But while its construction from recycled corrugated iron underlines its humble origins, this loo is not without mod cons and comforts.

For example, the can has a hand-carved wooden seat.

And the detachable sarlon screen (that’s the green stuff!) ensures ones’ business remains private in the event of a ‘run’ on the amenities!

If that’s not enough, the dunny is only a few small steps away from the opal mine shafts – so taking a ‘break’ need not mean putting your dreams of opal mining riches on hold for long!

Progressive in more ways than one (it’s arguably the most remote OZ location to stock the fabulous ‘Journey Jottings’ products*), White Cliffs leads the way in showing that ‘budget’ doesn’t have to mean ‘spartan’ in this true representation of ‘convenience’ in all its guises.

So maybe this progressive and innovative design is worth patenting, and producing en masse for use around the world?!?!

Am I the only one who’d like to see that??!!

* No, they’re NOT paying me …

The post Australia’s Scenic Public Toilets #17 – White Cliffs, New South Wales appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

The combi van is generally accepted as a symbol of surfie/hippie culture, but a decorative, airborne one with the label ‘surfing art’ in the middle of the outback town of Lightning Ridge in north central New South Wales far, far from the ocean SURELY deserves its own classification!

I just don’t know what that is.

I DO know that Lightning Ridge, world famous for its black opal, is unique – so the combi really sets the scene for the many other bizarre delights to be found here!

Sadly, time constraints meant we stayed less than 24 hours in August 2009, so there are still many attractions that deserve a closer look – such as the Chambers of the Black Hand, the Black Queen Light show and Antique Lamp Museum and nursery of the only black opal mining cactus farmers in the world!

This town may well be the most unusual in Australia – if not the world!  Am I right? 

Go on, prove me wrong!

Safe travels!!

The post Only in OZ #6 – The Flying Combi, Lightning Ridge, NSW appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.