Queensland Opal Towns & Fields

Home of Boulder Opal

The Queensland Opal fields are spread over a belt 300-400km wide with a 1000km strike. Trending in a north-westerly direction from the New South Wales border at Hungerford up to Kynuna and stretching west of Cunnamulla, Blackall and Winton out to Noccundra, Palparrara and Hamilton. Opaline silica is common throughout this deeply weathered section of the Winton Formation which consists of sedimentary sandstone, siltstone and mudstone. Ironstone concretions or 'boulders' are also widely distributed throughout these Cretaceous sediments and may be randomly distributed or confined to definite 'levels'.

Seemingly untouched by man since the beginning of time, the vast, rugged landscape of the western region of the State has a rich history. More than 25 Aboriginal tribes roamed the country before the arrival of the pioneer pastoralists and Opal miners in the mid to late 1800's. Today huge sheep and cattle stations, mineral deposits, oil and gas fields contrast with the lifestyle of the nomadic Opal miner.

Winton Opal Country

Lark Quarry dinosaur stampede

Precious Australian Opal was first found in Queensland where it occurs over of an area in excess of 100,000 square kilometres, in a multitude of forms and varieties. Making South-west Queensland the greatest region of Opalisation in the world and the most prospective in the new millennium.

Lady Brassey in her book "The Last Voyage, to India & Australia, in the 'Sunbeam'" mentions that a piece of Opal was found in Queensland by the overseer at Blackall Station on Listowel Downs, in 1869.

The beautiful fragment stood on the mantelpiece for several years before it was thought to be of any value, but at the time of the greatest mining fever attention was attracted to the specimen, and it was sent to a mineralogist, who pronounced it to be valuable Opal.

The Opal encrusted ironstone boulders discovered on the jump ups of the Barcoo district by early miners Berkelman and Lambert attracted great interest at the Queensland Annexe of the London International Gem Exhibition in 1873 and became known internationally as 'Barcoo Opal'. Following the discovery of further deposits hundreds of kilometres to the north near Kynuna entrepreneur Herbert Bond infamously formed a syndicate with the intention of marketing Queensland Boulder Opal to the world.

However, by the end of the 1870s, pioneer miner Joe Bridel had discovered a new form of precious Opal at Stoney Creek in the Kyabra Hills that lie north-west of Quilpie and to the south of Windorah. It was the solid seams, 'pipes' and nodules of precious Opal from this sandstone Opal that the pioneering Opal marketeer Tullie Cornthwaite Wollaston took to London in 1890 which was familiar yet superior in quality to any Opal the world had known hitherto and helped initiate the Australian Opal industry.

Today Queensland's Opal miners are above all in search of Boulder Opal, this 'heavenly marriage of ironstone and Opal' is widely regarded as one of the planet's most stirringly beautiful gemstones, particularly amongst the cognescenti.

Despite an apparent abudance of the resource in Queensland, Boulder Opal constitutes only a minor percentage of total Australian Opal production. The 'tyranny of distance' and the technical difficulty in the economic extraction and cutting of this most brilliant of gemstones are challenges which remain to be addressed as we celebrate 140 years of the Gem's first recorded discovery.