Lightning Ridge, New South Wales
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Lightning Ridge is a town in north-western New South Wales, Australia, in Walgett Shire, near the southern border of Queensland. Lightning Ridge a world epicenter of the mining of black opals and other opal gemstones. Lightning Ridge has the largest deposits of these luminescent stones in the world.
In 2001 it had 1,826 persons, including 344 indigenous persons (18.8%) and 1,304 persons born in Australia (71.4%).[1] The population is said to be highly variable as transient miners come and go over time. There is an official population indicator sign on the highway as you enter the town that says, Lightning Ridge — population?. Prior to the 2004 Public Enquiry into the functioning of Walgett Shire Council, it worked on the basis that there were about 7,000 people in the town, but the enquiry found that this estimate was given no support by the 2001 census and contrasted with the 1,109 people who voted in the town at the local government elections in 2004. [2]
Lightning Ridge is about six km east of the Castlereagh Highway, and is served in commercial activities by the town of Walgett, New South Wales - some 75 km to the south. Lightning Ridge is a flourishing tourist town with numerous "caravan" (camper-trailer) and camping parks, the previously very rustic and contagious Diggers' Rest pub (which has burned down for the third time) and a well-appointed and vibrant bowling club with its eight artificial-grass bowling greens. Temperatures in summer can reach into the high 40s Celsius, but below ground the temperature remains at a pleasant and continual 22 degrees, year round.
There is a hot spring in Lightning Ridge which is open to the public.
Lightning Ridge hosts an annual Goat Race in the town's main street on the Easter long weekend. Goats are harnessed and ridden by children, much like harness racing in equine sports. The Goat races are accompanied by wheelie-bin races, and Horse races the following day.
A fossicker's license is required to mine here and may be obtained from the New South Wales Department of Mineral Resources.
Other products produced around Lightning Ridge include wheat, wool, mutton, and beef.
[edit] See Also
- List of fossil sites (with link directory)
[edit] Further information
Lightning Ridge and Mining Photo Slideshow
[edit] References
- ^ Lightning Ridge (Urban Centre/Locality). 2001 Census QuickStats. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved on 2006-11-14.
- ^ Bulford, Robert (June 2004). Walgett Shire Council Public Enquiry. New South Wales Department of Local Government. Retrieved on 2006-11-14. (section 4.5)
