Day 239 - Lightning Ridge to Moree

Nearly 400 km on a beautiful day made cool by the rain yesterday, was our target for today - from Lightning Ridge to Moree.

The first leg on the Castelreagh Highway took us to Walgett but we passed "Stanley" on the way. He sure catches your eye.  Originally his creator wanted to display him on the Birdsville Track but the only resources forthcoming were from the people of Lightning Ridge, so that's where he ended up. His body is a Volkswagen.

011214 Stanley on the Castlereagh Hwy near Lightning Ridge

011214 Stanley's story

Walgett is named after an aboriginal word which means "the meeting of two rivers", in this case the Barwon and Namoi Rivers.  It is the regional hub for wool, wheat and cotton industries.  It not significant so much for its population of 2300, about half of which is aboriginal, but for the facts that Dr James Oswald Little AO is buried there and Banjo Patterson wrote a poem which mentioned it. 

011214 Main street of Walgett

011214 Plaque for Jimmy Little, who is buried in the Walgett Cemetary.
Remember the song "Royal Telephone" ?

011214 "Been There Before" a poem by Banjo Patterson
which makes reference to Walgett

011214 The Namoi River at Walgett

011214 The Namoi River from the other side of the bridge

Walgett is visibly suffering from the drought and the view at our morning tea stop demonstrated this. 

011214  A sign designed for better days at Walgett

011214 The pond at the park in Walgett

From Walgett we headed east along the Kamilaroi Highway to Collarenabri.  Collarenabri is a small river town on the Barwon River with a population of about 380. Wheat and cotton is grown nearby and there are sheep and cattle stations as well.  Once again the country showed evidence of the drought.

011214 The main street in Collarenebri

011214 The weir on the Barwon River at Collarenebri

011214 "Look at me, look at me.  Aren't I beautiful?"  "Yes, but it's a shame
 you squawk". This on the banks of the Barwon River

011214 The Barwon River above the weir

While we contemplated and discussed the seriousness of the drought our attention was diverted immediately we started on the road to Moree, 140 km away.  It was diverted to the road. We bucked, rocked, rolled, and crunched the 140 km to Moree.  The only saving grace was that the road was paved. We drew some consolation from the fact we were told the road between Moree and Goondiwindi is worse, - and we are not going that way. We can only wonder at what the road might be like between Moree and Glen Innes, our route for tomorrow.

That aside, Moree is a lovely town and it even has a few traffic lights.  It has a population of around 9300 and is a centre for cotton growing.  It is on the Mehi River.

011214 Coming in to Moree

011214 Traffic lights in main street in Moree

Day 238 - Around Lightning Ridge

We have just realised the right description for Lightning Ridge and its inhabitants is - eccentric.   But then it may be quirky.  Mining is a weird industry and mining for opals seems to attract more than a fair share of eccentric folk.  The town itself demonstrates this.  A lot of the signs are not done professionally and the home painted ones go a long way to making the place - well, different.  Time does not seem of any great consequence and the activity in the place seem to be dictated by the temperature.  Mind you, this is not all bad for the people are most laid back and probably don't suffer from heart attacks or strokes.  Being miners, some are pretty fit as well.  As for the animals, the humans' behaviour is catching.

301114 Who's hot?  Not me

301114 A typical working mine in Lightning Ridge,
eccentric, quirky and .... untidy

301114 Eccentric, quirky or even humorous,? The answer is "2000 in the town,
another 2000 in the region and who knows how many underground"

301114 The entrance to the cactus farm, where else but in Lightning Ridge

Today the uniqueness of the place was demonstrated by the tour we did today, around an open cut mine, the Lunatic Hill Mine, and through the Chambers of the Black Hand.  

301114 A thoroughly unprofessional sign

301114 On the "yellow door" self drive tour

301114 Lunatic Hill open cut

301114 Lunatic Hill open cut

301114  The story about the Lunatic Hill open cut and the biggest
nobby found in it, the "Haley's Comet, valued in 1986 at $6 million

301114 Over burden from a newer open cut, which will be returned
to the pit after mining is completed

The Chambers of the Black Hand, what a quirky name. This is a one hundred year old opal mine, which provided us with a walk through the underground mine itself, but also through many galleries of carvings done in the sandstone in the layer above the opal bearing claystone. There were about 500 carvings in all.  The guy who did the carvings is a miner who owns 50% of the mine, is over 70 years of age and has had no artistic training. The carvings that drew the most comments were those of Australian politicians.  This could reasonably be described as an "ooh-aah" experience.  We have included but a few photographs of the carvings.

301114 Where we visited today

301114  Some young boys showing how mining for opals is done

301114 Down in the mine proper

301114 Sandstone carving in the mine

301114 Sandstone carving in the mine

301114 The last supper

301114 A cherub

301114 Mother Teresa, Ghandi and the Dalai Lama

301114 Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser, Bob Menzies
and Tony Abbott amongst others 

301114 Bob Hawke, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Peter Garrett amongst others

301114 Barry Mackenzie (?), Rolf Harris in jail and Steve Irwin

After the mine tour we did some fossicking on the ground around the mine.  While we found lots of "colour" none was of any value.  Gee it is fun though, and one can imagine how easy it would be to get the "bug".  

This afternoon we did the last two of the car door tours - a self drive trip around mines in the area with comments on other features of interest, including the first hole sunk in Lightning Ridge.  

301114 Plaque near the site of the first shaft sunk in Lightning Ridge
by Charles Nettleton in 1902

301114 Thought to be the first shaft dug in Lightning Ridge

While the "car door tours" were at best imaginative in the descriptions of the sights and rough, in that the roads were terrible, they did at least get us out into the area. As a result, we feel that we have given Lightning Ridge a "good shake".   Tomorrow we will move on, happy that we have seen Lightning Ridge.  Maybe we will come back one day and do some fossicking.

Incidentally, storms came up again this afternoon and we did see lightning striking near the ridge just out of town.

The Gnome was right at home here.

301114 Thoroughly at home and ready to go to work with his shovel

Day 237 - St George to Dirrinbandi, Hebel and Lightning Ridge

Well, we did bring some rain last night to St George and when we awoke this morning the whole place looked refreshed.  Our task today was to travel around 235km to Lightning Ridge via Dirranbandi and Hebel but we were amused, even before we started, by a bird which tried to peck to death, its image in the car mirror.  He tried for 45 minutes and then we just had to leave. The mirror was a mess.

291114 How come the other guy doesn't have trouble hanging on?

291114 Hate the guy in the mirror

It was a fine day and in the early part anyway, cooler because of the rain.

Dirranbandi is a small town and its only obvious point of interest was a bronze statue, in the main street, of Tom Dancey, an aboriginal runner who won the Stawell Gift in 1910.  There may be more of historical value of course but we did not take the time to investigate.

291114 Tom Dancy, born in Hebel in 1888 and won Stawell gift in 1910
aged 22 years. He was the second aboriginal runner to do this

291114 The Dirran Pub in Dirranbandi.  Everything there is abbreviated to Dirran

291114 The main street in Dirranbandi

Hebel, on the NSW/Queensland border, is an even smaller town with its claim to fame being a old hotel with original hitching rails intact.  We were amused by the white damask table cloth over the table outside the local store.

291114 Another border crossing - from Queensland

291114 The Hebel Hotel built circa 1888 with original hitching rails out front

291114 The General Store at Hebel near the NSW/Queensland border

We passed through some sad country once again but in spite of this, there were some wild flowers on the roadside and some trees were in flower.

291114 Wildflowers on the road to Dirrinbandi

291114 Typical countryside.  No wonder graziers have destocked

291114 A flowering tree near Hebel 

291114 A flowering tree near Hebel.  Note the thin leaves

Lightning Ridge appeared out of the desolation and, boy, it is something different. 

291114 Old cement mixer tank used to separate the opal from
the clay by sluicing

291114 The main street in Lightning Ridge

Lightning Ridge doesn't have the huge mullock heaps that we saw at Cober Pedy.  Rather, there are smaller humps of clay with houses built in between.  Some of these houses are extreme. There do not seem to be any building codes in the place and the roads run higgledy piggledy between the mines and the houses.  Most houses look rather dilapidated and as for lawns, fences or gardens, forget it.

291114 (The fence surrounding) the artesian hot baths 

291114 The Black Queen, a private home made out of recyclables

291114 The Ridge Castle, a miner's home

291114 Amigo's Castle, singlehandedly built of ironstone and inspired
by Roman ruins in Northern Italy

291114 Astronomers' Monument, a curious concrete folly, with a temple of
inscriptions in memory of famous astronomers

291114 "Pony Fence Mine" one of the earliest diggings 

291114 A private home amongst the diggings 

291114 The Bottlehouse Mining Museum 

In spite of these shortcomings, the opals found here are the famous black opals and we may see some of these tomorrow.

We are pleased to say we made it back to the van before we were set upon by a voluminous black cloud spitting lightning and hurrah, hurrah, rain.  It has been raining already for 30 minutes and, while this won't resolve the drought, it will refresh the place, and the people, for tomorrow.

291114 From our caravan at 5.30pm EAST