The first Opal blocks were accidentally found on an Australian cattle station called Tarravilla in 1849. However, it wasn’t until 1890 that the first Opal prospectors started mining the Opal rocks at White Cliff. Today places like White Cliffs, Lightning Ridge, Andamooka or Coober Peddy are legendary for their Opal fields.
Probably the most famous, Lightning Ridge, is where the coveted Black Opal is found. Andamooka, where Crystal Opal and Light Opal are brought to the light of day, is where the largest Opal was found, with a weight of 6 ,843 kilograms. It is known as the “Andamooka Desert Flame”. Coober Peddy is a word from Aborigine language meaning "white man in a hole“. Clearly describing how Opal was mined, many Opal prospectors made their home in deep holes or caves in the ground, to protect themselves from the burning heat of daytime and from the icy winds of night time. Usually they worked with pick and shovel, buckets full of soil, hopefully containing Opal rocks, were pulled up out of the depths of 5 to 40 m deep shafts by hand. This is the depth of the mining crevices and cavities which continue to be mined today.
Being an Opal prospector is still not an easy job, although today there are some technical means available, such as trucks or conveyor belts. However, many miners still the hope to make the find of a lifetime which will allow them to live happily ever after. The idea draws many men and women into the hot and dusty Australian outback.
