White Cliffs at last!
A visit to the remote town of White Cliffs has been a bucket-list wish for years. In terms of opal towns, we travelled to Lightning Ridge years ago, but plans for Coober Pedy have failed twice due to COVID and floods. But now we have made it to this north-west NSW town. In the 1880`s, one of a group of hunters culling troublesome kangaroos on a pastoral lease noticed the sparkle in the ground near White Cliffs, a part of the lease so named because of guess what. Consulting with an expert, the value of the gems was soon appreciated, and by 1890, the word had got around and mining leases were being taken up. By 1893, 600 acres had been pegged out. The population exploded to 3500 by 1897, and intensive mining took place, but the glory days did not last long. Extreme heat in summer, no water, and World War I took its toll. Within 10-20 years, disappointed miners sought other opportunites, or enlisted, and the town settled down to a slow decline. Native Title claims and administrative errors have stopped large scale mining in White Cliffs, but fossickers are still welcome, and a few long term leaseholders are still able to mine. The remote town, 100km north of Wilcannia, is now popular with grey-nomads, outback travellers and gem fossickers, but the permanent population is less than 200.
Chemically, opal is a mineraloid, hydrated silica, SiO2.nH2O, where the water content is 3-20%. Precious opals have a particular but variable structure which causes them to refract light and display a multitude of colours and make them regarded as gemstones of great value. It`s said that 95% of the world`s opal comes from Australia, but there are numerous other sources. Cooper Pedy is the biggest producer, but pineapples only are found in White Cliffs, and black opals, the rarest, in Lightning Ridge.
What was remarkable about the underground tunnels that we entered in White Cliffs, is that they are unsupported by any structural steel or timber. The earth is particularly stable and can be tunneled without being shored up. Apparently, there have been no collapses other than when tunnels have been dug too close to each other. This feature certainly makes White Cliffs undergrounds more comfortable and spacious, and more aesthetically attractive too, look at our photos!
Tailings heaps, old vehicles and shanties make up this opal mining camp. [2177]
Visitors are welcomed to White Cliffs by a portable rubble blower. [0908]
The Opal Fields of White Cliffs
Described simply, the town of White Cliffs is surrounded by three hills. To the north is called Opal Fields and is, or was, the original and richest location. Others are Turley`s Hill and Smith`s Hill and people, especially those with rights in Opal Fields, scoff at the quality of finds from the latter two. That hasn't stopped them being mined underground extensively. We saw little activity anywhere in these fields, and not many people either, and we understand that serious opal mining has been prohibited for seven years so far while Native Title claims are negotiated, except for miners whose leases predate the claims. The flattish top of the northern area, especially, is heavily pockmarked with open mineshafts creating a moon-like cratered landscape. Hillsides have been cut into horizontally. The hills are populated by camps, the bases of mining leases (50m x 50m), and the miners live in shanties, caravans, old buses and railway carriages. We were told we could fossick anywhere, but don`t go into camps and don`t fall down any shafts, of which there are hundreds if not thousands.
A whirlygig is a sure sign of a tunnel underneath. [2102]
Well established campsite, not welcoming visitors. [2122]
A disconnected and abandoned `blower`, by the look of it. [2137]
The Opal Field, with a `Self-Tipper` in the distant left. Not as good as a `blower`, apparently. [2157]
Public toilets on the Opal Fields, named Nobody`s, Everybody`s, Somebody`s and Busybody`s. [2169]
An active shaft made safe with old bedsprings. [2170]
Signage keeps us on the straight and narrow as we walk or drive the Opal Fields loop. [2173]
View across the open mine shafts of the Opal Fields plateau. [2180]
We did not see a `blower` in action, but this one looks to be ready for work. Blowers are used to suck rubble out of a pit. [2184]
We saw no activity here or anywhere else, and suspect the three buddies are not in residence! [2190]
Street signage pointing to the Opal Fields, and to the dirt roads heading further into the outback, towards Camerons Corner. [2198]
Tourist map showing the three hills of White Cliffs. The thicker blacl lines signify sealed roads. The map is out of date - the loop around Smiyh`s Hill has been recently tarred.. We drove and walked all these roads, although we had to wait a day while the unsealed roads dried out after about 10mm of rain. [3138]
Aerial view over the Opal Fields showing a massive array of unprotected vertical mine shafts. [0919]
Aussie Southern Cross Opals
Dug into Turley`s Hill is an opal mine converted to Aussie Southern Cross Opals, a retail outlet, owned and managed by Dick and his son Rusty. The walls of the underground tunnels had been rendered and painted white. There were no other customers, and he spent a lot of time talking to us about White Cliffs, opal mining history, and what he had for sale. He knew we were not going to buy anything, but that did not deflect him from being friendly and helpful, happily agreeing to be photographed too.Dick said that his prices were lower than in the cities, but other than that, put no sales pressure on us. Dick was the first (of many) to talk about the current prohibition on commercial mining. It seems he just likes visitors and talking to them. Apparently Dick holds a long term lease on the site and is thus entitled to mine, but we think he has retired from that more strenuous activity to focus on being a tourist attraction. The outside of his mine/store was extensively decorated with recovered junk, giving it a welcoming, colorful, junky appearance.
You go up a short driveway to arrive at the Aussie Southern Cross opal store, which is dug into a high slope of Turley`s Hill. [2044]
Any old thing can be painted an used as a decoration. [2045]
Here is Dick applying his sales pitch on a potential customer. [2048]
Sculptures and flowers make the Southern Cross store look interesting. [2049]
The Red Earth Cafe and Mine
With about a dozen others, we were able to tour underground in what may be the only commercial opan mining currently operating in White Cliffs. The tour leader was the long term mine owner, Graeme, and apart from being very successful as a miner, he had the gift of the gab to make the whole experience most enjoyable. He entertains the children with stories of `mine snakes`. Graeme has tapped into the vein of pineapple formations, knows exactly where to look for them, and sells them to willing USA collectors for up to USD100,000 and more. According to a White Cliffs website: "There have only ever been between 300-500 [pineapples] found and the only place you can find them in the world is White Cliffs. Pineapples started life as Ikaite crystal clusters which form when the temperature is below 4 degrees celcius. When the ground temperature reaches 8 degrees the Ikaite pseudomorphs into Glendonite which is finally then replaced with precious opal." https://www.whitecliffsnsw.com.au/pineapples This tour was the highlight of our visit to White Cliffs!
The Red Earth Opal Cafe not only makes good coffee, but is the starting point for one of the best tours in White Cliffs, underground to a mine which is actually working and yields the legendary `pineapple opal` formations. [2203]
Grahame showed us, but would not let us hold, an exquisite pineapple opal. He said these sold to American collectors for upwards of USD100,000 ! He also showed us a broken one, which had sheared smoothly up the middle - it showed a fabulous structure. [2209]
This gadget hauls debris up from Graeme's mine and deposits it into the truck. [2221]
Graeme led us in convoy from the cafe to the entrance to his Opan Fields mine. [2222]
Demonstrating how much light there was in the mine when candle-lit. [2232]
Digging out fresh material at the active face of Graeme's mine, about 50m from our entry point underground. By this demonstration, he is effectively mining at the same time as tour-guiding. That`s efficiency![2236]
The seam where the pinapples are found is at floor level and only about 200mm high. Graeme pokes the soft earth with screwdrivers listening for their characteristic `chink`. Finds are, of course, rare, but very lucrative. [2237]
Late afternoon, we exited from the mine. [2238]
The Red Earth Opal Cafe is in a dugout to the Opal Fields Hill.. [1332]
Around Town
It`s very interesting to walk or drive around White Cliffs, and there are a lot of photo compositions possible. We avoided invading miners` privacy, and stayed out of obvious camps. The dirt roads were boggy after recent, rare, rain, but it was easy to avoid the worst patches. Walking, you also have to avoid wide open mine shafts. We noted that the caravan park had quite a lot a patrons, and suspect that the visitor population exceeds that of the locals.
Symbol of the decline of White Cliffs, a now closed rather large Supermarket and Petrol Station. The still-going general store has only a limited range of goods, and no competition. [2074]
If the signage is correct, Saint Mary`s Anglican holds services once a month in White Cliffs. The church is dated 1899. [2101]
White Cliffs is under strich water restrictions, and if this is the town`s water supply, we can see why. [0902]
Visitors are welcomed to White Cliffs by a portable rubble blower. [0908]
Fauna that we came across in White Cliffs included kangaroos and goats. [2175]
The ideal rig for touring the mostly unsealed roads of the outback, a 4WD motor home on a truck chassis. This one was seen on the White Cliffs Heritage Trail. [2182]
Fauna that we came across in White Cliffs included kangaroos and goats. [2185]
Pretty cloud formations over the tailings heaps of the Opal Fields. [2214]
White Cliffs sunset, as seen from the pub. [1322]
The Empire of Honor Bosslady
We booked into the rather unimaginatively named White Cliffs Self Contained Cabin Accommodation to avoid sleeping in one of the several dugout (underground) hotels or B&Bs. There were two such cabins on a large empty site in town, and we stayed three nights. The other cabin was only occupied, by a tradesman, one night, so we enjoyed a quiet and lonely time there. The cabin was clean and comfortable, if compact, and we could sit outside on the leeward side to absorb the warm sunshine on cool days. The cabins are run by a lady Honor whose email address implies she is the Bosslady. That she may be, but she was friendly and helpful. Honor also ran the town`s only General Store and also a farmstay just out of town, so we figure Honor has a pretty good hold on the present above-ground business opportunities in White Cliffs.
The White Cliffs General Store was where Honor Bosslady ruled the roost. We had a bacon and egg roll here every morning, but the egg did depend on the supplies truck arriving. Only essentials were available at the store, but there was a street library. [2065]
The two self contained cabins were located on the edge of a large empty site, almost wasteland. We imagine Honor has a plan to develop the site with more cabins if business picks up. [2098]
Eating and Drinking
The White Cliffs Hotel is the social centre of the town. It's across the road from the General Store and looks like its used to accommodating large numbers, mostly al fresco, so mostly in warmer weather. The tiny front bar was quite popular during our chilly stay, and noisy with both locals and visitors, and had an annex displaying merchandise. During our visit, the only other dining option was the Underground Motel, and we enjoyed one meal there. Both restaurants served traditional pub grub, nothing too fancy.
The White Cliffs Hotel hosted us for dinner one night. It was good basic pub grub, and we took it in the front bar. Some patrons, clearly locals, were quite uncouth and rowdy. [0132]
Like many hotels in the outback tourist trail, merchandise is part of the business model. All visitors looked but no-one bought while we were there. [5812]
The White House at White Cliffs
A White Cliffs resident recommended a visit to the White House, located in the Opal Fields just north of town. It was a good call. The White House is constructed over an abandoned opal mine - an open plan living room and very large kitchen are above ground, together with workshops and an indoor pool/spa in the making. The rest of the house, bedrooms and bathrooms are in the tunnels of the mine, the walls of which are rendered white. The home is owned by a renowned artist, Cree Marshall and her husband, Grahame (?). Grahame conducted the tour while Cree collected the money. They make good money from these tours, twice a day. They call them White House Dugout Tours. Cree is very protective of her art, and probably with good reason, because the examples in her house are outstanding. She appears to specialise in using recycled junk and natural materials, and the versatility of her work is truly amazing. We tried to be respective of her art and our photographs focus on the building and the dugout, with the art being incidental. Cree asked us to look at her own website for images of her art - we did but those images did her art no credit.
For an ABC report on the White House, see https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-06-16/tunnel-into-the-house/11161480.
The owner of the White House in White Cliffs showed us numerous examples of his wife`s manifest artistic abilities, and her particular love of using natural and recycled materials. [2082]
Fossillised remains in one of the White House`s fantastic artwork montages. [2083]
One of several underground bedrooms in the White House of White Cliffs, decorated by an impressive mannequin. [2085]
Underground staircase in the White House. The owner claims to know of opal deposits behind some particular risers. [2086]
The workshop of the White Cliffs White House is replete with artifacts ready for building into artworks. This poison rack was a surprise find, and probably keeps both halves of the family on their toes. [2089]
The White House from outside is a messy affair with no hint of the wonders inside. Our tour started at that lower level and climbed up, underground, to the observatory on top. [2195]
The World`s First Solar Power Station
In a world first, in 1981, the Australian National University, developed and constructed an array of sun-catching devices to provide power to the remote town of White Cliffs. Obviously, the NSW Government thought this approach preferable to the cost of electrifying such a remote town. The focused sunshine boiled water which drove a power generator. The devices look more like satellite dishes to our contemporary eyes. The town is now connected to the national grid, apparently after the Government wearied of the experiment and found the money for transmission lines. The power station was decommissioned in 2004. According to Wikipedia, "In 2006 Engineers Australia placed a heritage marker `recognising the engineering significance of what is arguably considered the world`s first commercial solar power station`. There`s talk of having a museum here, but as of our visit, the site is inaccessible, being part of a water-treatment plant (from which I was kicked out, trying to get a better angle). From outside, it looks to be in pretty good condition. https://www.facebook.com/groups/FotWCSPS
Eerie in the early morning fog, decommissioned solar power cells not bothering to look for the sunshine! [2069]
Aerial view of the White Cliffs solar power station. We hope the plans to create a museum here come to fruition. [0901]
White Cliffs Pioneer Cemetery
The White Cliffs Pioneer and General Cemetery lies just outside town, to the south-east and on the road to the Paroo-Darling National Park. A plaque there says it contains the graves of over `500 children and innumerable adults [from the 1890`s who] lie in unmarked graves`. Indeed, the scattered gravestones here number only in the dozens with a lot of open space. Not on this site, but near the caravan park in town, is most poignant place, the tiny Pioneer Children`s Cemetery with about half a dozen graves enclosed by a rustic fence. In that ebulliant decade, the harsh conditions of heat and drought claimed (mostly children) from typhoid, diphtheria and dysentry. How much people suffered in their hope for riches! The particular price paid by children is commemorated in a unique way.
The newest grave in the cemetery was freshly decorated in a rustic style. [2113]
Such a stark landscape embraces the White Cliffs Cemetery. [2116]
Fred will not feel crowded in his final resting place. [2118]
The sad Pioneer Children`s Cemetery of White Cliffs. [2197]
