I first went to Lightning Ridge, the opal mining settlement, in 1982. It was the real Wild West then. Very basic with few facilities. It does have facilities now but it still is the Wild West. I went into the scrub today down rough dirt roads to some opal mining areas away from Lightning Ridge-not in the Mini.
It really is a very unusual place with many unusual people. The bush pubs I called in at are just tin shacks in the scrub. The facilities are the other side of basic although there is a strong mobile phone signal. The mining areas are full of rusting cars and trucks and mining equipment and spoil heaps and hundreds of open mine shafts. And a tree full of bras.
On a 1 to10 scale of weirdness. With 10 really weird Lightning Ridge and surrounds would easily score 11.
Some photos from the day and two of the opal miners I met.
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