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Tuesday Feb 07

Queensland Opal Towns & Fields - Winton

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Queensland Opal Towns & Fields
Winton
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Winton – Northern Capital of Qld Opal Fields

The Winton Mining Area encompasses a vast region of intermittent Opalisation, famous for patches of brilliant black boulder Opal pancakes. Also home to ‘Lark Quarry’ - a fossilised dinosaur stampede, which showcases three different species’ footprints. Luckily discovered by an Opal prospector and now preserved as a major tourist attraction.

Active ImageOpalton –124 km south of Winton, was discovered in 1887 by George Cragg, a 17 year old stockman on Warrambool Downs. Almost a decade passed before the commencement of mining on this field which proved to contain the highest concentration of Opal in Queensland.
Today, a population of less than 20 inhabit what is a designated fossicking reserve, host to the most extensive Opal workings in Queensland, where once a township of nearly 600 people flourished.
The field includes numerous historical mines; Brilliant, Little Wonder, Bald Knob, Snake Jump, Conways, Dragon Fly, Kinder....


Active ImageThe largest piece of gem Opal ever recorded in the world was found at Opalton in 1899 by Dick Shillington and his mate Greenwood. It was 11ft long, as thick as a man’s thigh and took four men to carry it.

Working the Gem, an Opal cutter at Opalton in 1901 (pictured) has rigged up an old treadle sewing machine. Others used bicycles, designing innovative hand or foot operated cutting and polishing wheels.

 


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This magnificent Black Boulder Opal (pictured) is possesed of an uncanny stripey-pattern, it is multicoloured with a predominance of purple and red. The stone was found in the crust of a football sized boulder at 18ft by Rosie Petrie and Hans Klinger in 1993, it was specked by their dog Fritz in an open-cut at Opalton!

Feelin Lucky Mate? Try your luck 'noodling' in the Opalton fossicking reserve!

Why not stay in a cabin or your own caravan, for more details contact the Opalton Outpost.

 

Mayneside - 'Opal Creek' area just south of Opalton and north of Mayneside Homestead was the greatest producer in the last 20 years, producing gem quality sandstone Boulder Opal with glorious patterns and dark colouring. Mayneside is host to numerous prospects, with the finest ironstone pancakes generally found in smaller concentrations and sporadic pockets;; Carbine, Yellow Jimmy, Wild Horse, Mud Mine, Tyson, Quartpot, Breadbox, Mayneside...further south in the Horse Creek - Vergemont area Arch Mine, Canadians, HOpal and more recently Red October and Twin Peaks....

Jundah - Field (396 S of Winton) includes Jundah, Lina Glen, Opalville and Hayfield mines, and Stonehenge - Evengy Station to the south-west. The area is renowned for red coloured Opal in large sandy boulders and manganese Black Opal pipes.

The Black Mine was Australia’s first discovered Black Opal deposit and is significant as it was 10 years before Lightning Ridge appeared in the annals of history. In 1900 there were several hundred men idle in Jundah during the drought. With no other prospects many went gouging, it is said there were 100 miners working at Opalville & Black Mine at the turn of the twentieth century.

The Opal found was mostly nodules and cylindrical pipes in the band at the junction of the sandstone and clay. They ranged in size from that of a small pencil to 2 metres in length and many were more than 10 centimetres in diameter. The larger pipes were generally filled with potch and a hard red brick-like material, occasionally carrying a little colour. They were so numerous the miners nicknamed them 'brick pipes'. It was a rare pipe which was full of colour. Most of the better pipes contained at least 90% potch, the remainder being high-quality Opal in isolated patches throughout the potch.

Kynuna - Northern-most of the Queensland Opal fields (200 NW of Winton), the main field was discovered in 1894 and lies 40 km south of Kynuna township off the Landsborough Highway.

This vast area of potential Opalisation has been worked very little and is perhaps the deepest Opal profile in Queensland. The Opal country is dominated by sandstone mesas in areas which are highly elevated (320m ASL) suggesting up to 35m to the bottom level. The prospective areas thereabouts are west of the main Kynuna field and south toward Dagworth Station.

Middleton - Numerous Mines surround the Middleton Pub (169 km W of Winton) on Woodstock, Chiltern Hills, Franklin and Brighton Stations.

Windorah - Mt. Windsor to the west of Jundah. Palparrara and Curren to the south west.