Lightning Ridge, N.S.W.

We’ve become very familiar with two salutes on this trip. Oncoming caravans always give an acknowledgement – either a friendly wave or a gentle raising of a finger from the steering wheel. The other is the famous Great Australian Salute – the flies are relentless. They’d crawl up your nose if you didn’t perform the patriotic hand gesture.

In the four days after we left Narrabeen, I think we saw all the extremes that exist in this great country that is girt by sea. The beaches of northern Sydney are just beautiful, only made better by the local council cleaning the sand every morning with a sieve on the back of a tractor. The water was warm, the surf was raging, the coastline majestic in both directions, and the view out to sea was panoramic. Within minutes of leaving, however, the tranquillity was abruptly replaced by bumper-to-bumper traffic for the hour it took us to get out of Sydney. Traversing the Blue Mountains provided views of spectacular sheer rocky cliffs, deep gorges and long forested valleys. Through Lithgow on to Rylestone, where James and Joanne had been looking after our caravan. Then on to Gulgong, Dunnedoo, Mendooran, Gilgandra and Curban where Anne’s Uncle Alwyn and Aunty Harleen live in retirement on a 1,800 hectare farm. Just a small plot! An overnight stay there gave us a good insight into living on these lands – the preciousness of water, the endlessness of sky, the chandelier of stars at night and the flatness of the land. The Castlereagh Highway then took us further north to Coonamble, Walgett and on to Lightning Ridge.

Just north of Gilgandra, in the front yard of a 1,800 ha property.

Lightning Ridge is a fascinating town. It’s not a pretty place by any means, but it has character and attitude because of the people who live here. They call themselves “Ridgies”, and many of them have been attracted here from all around Australia and the world by the charm of this unique opal mining town - and of course the lure of making your fortune from opals.

Lightning Ridge outskirts, hardly picturesque.

We went underground to see several chambers of figures carved into the rock by an enterprising immigrant Pom called Ron. This was an incredible sight due to the combination of imagination and skill to create these carvings together with the sheer dogged determination and hard work to dig the tunnels by hand in the first place. A few metres below these galleries was another level of mine shafts where opals were being mined. A former miner showed us through the narrow tunnels and explained how the permit system works – there are no big corporate companies here like in Broken Hill, these are small leases where one man will dig and salvage opals in dry, hot conditions. Some are permanent residents, others are itinerant. Ridgies are proud of their town, their heritage and the culture that they’ve created. It was well worth the visit.

"Chambers of the Black Hand" 12 metres below ground, all carved by one man.

Our caravan park, by chance, hosted a couple of bush poets and story tellers who do a different performance at 4:30 every day. We enjoyed their show for our three days in the Ridge. Mel and Susie were spontaneous, entertaining, well rehearsed and very clever. They will be an enduring memory for us of Lightning Ridge.

Mel and Susie, after another hilarious show.