CELEBRATE OPALS. 108 QANTAS NOVEMBER 2013. A LOT OF PEOPLE
THINK. WE'RE AIMING FOR THE SKY HERE. WELL, WHAT IF WE ARE? P. H. O.
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COLOUR IN THE STONE The Australian Opal Centre being developed in Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, celebrates Australia’s ongoing love affair with this mesmerising gemstone. WORDS AMRUTA SLEE
Architects’ vision for the Australian Opal Centre 106 Q A N TA S NOV E M BE R 201 3
Here is the standard narrative of rural Australia: small town grows up around an industry, industry flourishes, town flourishes, industry flounders, town searches for ways to stay alive, usually by marketing the remnants of its history. Lightning Ridge, the opal-mining district in northern NSW, is determined to do things differently. True, since the 1990s, the Australian opal boom has fallen off. True, too, that it gets confused with other opal towns. But that is all set to change. Lightning Ridge has come up with an ambitious plan to revitalise its economy and put itself back on the map. A group of long-term residents led by deputy mayor David Lane is raising funds to build a $28m mixed exhibition space and research facility that will showcase the country’s gemstone, its history and the culture around it. When finished in 2015, it will be the only public venue displaying high-quality or precious opal, including the rare black opal of which Lightning Ridge is the world’s main source. Alongside that will be an extensive collection of memorabilia from the “rush” days of opal mining in the early part of the 20th century, hundreds of examples of the way the gem has been used (including a full set of opal teeth) and feted in poetry, films, books and art. And there will be something only found in Australia so far: opalised animal fossils, multi-hued remains from the early Cretaceous period when the land formed part of the Gondwana supercontinent.
Organisers have settled on a site – three hectares on the outskirts of town, drummed up support from high-profile spokespeople, including the NSW governor, Marie Bashir. And they have enlisted two of Australia’s most renowned architects, Glenn Murcutt and his partner, Wendy Lewin. Like Tasmania’s MONA, Bilbao’s Guggenheim, or the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada, the Australian Opal Centre is a bold vision of reinvention. What’s more, the industry around it is ongoing. “We’re not interested in being relics,” says palaeontologist and resident Dr Elizabeth Smith. “The thing about Lightning Ridge is that it’s a living piece of heritage.”
AT FIRST GLANCE, Lightning Ridge is an unlikely place to find the innovative future. These days, it is most easily reached via a long, dusty drive from Moree or Walgett. The town itself is a couple of long streets with a scattering of public buildings, cafes, shops and hotels and then roads of varying grades leading off into the outback. “Welcome to Lightning Ridge,” reads a prominent sign. “Population: ?” Aside from 80,000 annual visitors, the number of residents varies between 2500 and 3000, people from all over the globe who came to try their luck at finding ❯
CELEBRATE OPALS
A LOT OF PEOPLE THINK WE’RE AIMING FOR THE SKY HERE. WELL, WHAT IF WE ARE?
LIKE MOST “RIDGIES”, Lane can talk a blue streak about the beauty of precious opal, particularly the Australian variety, which he considers the best and most intensely coloured in the world. What he can’t fathom is why it’s held in such low esteem by Australians. “We think of gemstones as sapphires or rubies, but opal is much rarer than either of those.” The closest competitor to opal in terms of value is a diamond and, according to Lane, it’s no accident that the 108 Q A N TA S NOV E M BE R 201 3
Rough nobby opals (right)
latter dominates the jewellery market. “There’s been a snow job… that the opal is an unlucky stone.” International jewellers such as Cartier have created collections showcasing the stone, which is in demand across Europe. In Hungary, which produces “B-grade opal” according to Lane, the stone has been heavily promoted by the government. Lane feels Australians have been apathetic. “Ninety-nine percent of our opal is shipped overseas. We need to understand that it’s a finite resource. In 100 years it will be all gone. We do need better marketing. Most Australians have never seen quality opal. A good stone can go for $4000 to $5000 a carat.” Lane’s sentiments are echoed all over Lightning Ridge. The newer generation of miners, jewellers and gem cutters are anxious to distance themselves from the “oval” opal look. They are more likely to follow the natural shape of a stone when cutting and setting it, giving it a more contemporary edge. Part of the centre’s task will be to dispel the myths and misconceptions around opal. The stone is still a bit of a mystery. If it’s impossible to predict exactly where precious opal will be found, it’s also tricky to explain why Australia is the only place to offer up opalised animal fossils, although the theories point to certain geological conditions. “Most of the other sites where opal has been found, the host rock is volcanic,” says former science teacher and miner Robert Smith. “Ours is a sedimentary setting. That’s part of the key.” Jenni Brammall, who manages the opal centre and its progress, compares the public fate of opal to that of the wool industry. Both had a period of glory and then fell out of favour and fashion. Wool has been helped back on its feet by a clever marketing campaign. Brammall is confident the same thing could happen with opal, once it gets a proper place to reveal its charms. The centre is a big-vision plan, and its proponents have spent a long time working on it. “I think the centre will make a big difference to Lightning Ridge,” says Lane. “A lot of people think we’re aiming for the sky here. Well, what if we are? It’s a good place to aim.” Australian Opal Centre, Lightning Ridge, NSW. australianopalcentre.com
PHOTOGRAPHY: JENNI BRAMMALL; OPAL CENTRE DRAWING (PREVIOUS PAGE): CANDALEPAS ASSOCIATES
opal and stayed. They live in an assortment of dwellings: tents, caravans, corrugated-iron cabins, houses and in one glorious case, a castle built by hand from local stone. There are the landmarks of booms past: Three Mile, where black opal was found in vast quantities; and Lunatic Hill open-cut mine, where writer and miner Ion Idriess got inspiration for Lightning Ridge (1940), small hills of excavated clay and sandstone resembling a lunar landscape. Stay a while and the town reveals its character through various eccentric enterprises: Bevan’s Cactus Nursery containing the Southern Hemisphere’s largest variety of cacti; the Astronomer’s Monument, a cement folly that pays homage to Copernicus; the Chambers of the Black Hand, an art gallery in a set of disused mines. Opal mining is a gamble and, as locals are fond of pointing out, it attracts individuals with an aversion to conventional life. David Lane, now deputy mayor of Walgett Shire Council, was one of those. In the 1980s, having left school at 16, he headed to Lightning Ridge to mine opal and he’s been there ever since. “I liked the lifestyle, the freedom of interference from government departments,” he says. “It was the last wild frontier in Australia.” It was Lane who originally proposed the centre at a town meeting in 1997. As more people got behind it, it has grown in scope. “We could go for a basic building with a tin roof and a $1m budget. But we decided we’d like something nationally and internationally significant,” Lane says. Getting funds has been a long, slow road, but, Smith points out, that’s indicative of the nature of opal mining. Essentially a small-scale operation, it has no big-money multinational muscle. The difficulty of predicting where opal will be found and the generally small yields have kept consortiums away. On the upside, it means the industry has stayed in the hands of those who work in it.
