Peter Brusaschi of Opal Mine and the Opal Experts blog shares a bit of fascinating lore, an interesting personal story – and gorgeous photos – of Opal, possibly the most unique gemstone in the world:
Like most of the world’s gemstones, Opal has had a long history.
Raw opal specimen
Treasured greatly in Europe 2000 years ago, the stone was well described by Pliny the elder, an ancient historian who shared the Roman emperors’ fascination for opals.
Opal combines the glories of the most precious gems – the fire of the ruby, the rich purple of the amethyst, the sea green of the emerald, the blue of the sapphire – all glittering together in union indescribable.
How an opal changes color was a mystery for thousands of years, until the electron microscope unlocked the secret.
While a diamond produces its colors by refraction, by bending light at the surface of the gem, the opal is unique because it diffracts light naturally, breaking it up into many colors within the stone.
As it tilts, all of the colors in an opal will change.
This phenomenon, called the ‘play of color’, is what gives an opal its distinctive attraction.
Toward the end of 19th century the world’s known opal supply had nearly dried up.
It was saved from extinction when opal was discovered in the vast arid regions of the ‘land down under’ – Australia.
The striking colors of aboriginal art remind us of opal.
It was no doubt amusing to the aborigines to see the white man groveling around in the dirt under the hot sun, looking for them.
Hence the name for the ‘Coober Pedy’ mine – meaning, ‘white man’s hole’.
The History of an Opal
Wouldn’t it be nice to know where your particular opal came from?
What the place looked like, the type of people who found it, and the things they do from day to day.
Our focus of attention is Black Opal.
Black opal
Let’s visit the Australian outback.
Meet the people of Lightning Ridge and feel what it’s like to be in opal country.
Australia has three major opal fields, but here we’ll focus on just one – the small opal mining town of Lightning Ridge in western New South Wales, about 1000kms (600 miles) from the East coast of Australia.
Although a marginal rainfall area, in comparison to other opal fields, Lightning Ridge is a paradise.
While it’s pretty dry most of the time, in a good season there’s lots of green grass, attractive trees and scrub, emus, kangaroos, and clouds of beautiful parrots that look like flying opals.
The black soil plains feature lush paddocks of wheat, barley, and other crops, while the sandstone ridges present a rugged menagerie of endless bush tracks and gullies interspersed with little white piles of pale opal dirt identifying the spot where the prospector’s drill has done its job.
Then suddenly we come across the remnants of opal diggings.
Huge piles of white clay.
An occasional old windlass.
The remains of all sorts of old trucks, cars and machinery in various stages of decomposition, having contributed in some way to the serious work of finding opal by means of the old miners’ improvisational ability.
Charlie Nettleton sold his first rough opal parcel weighing just over 2 kilos from Wallungulla, as Lightning Ridge was then called, for 15 Australian pounds (approx. US $15 today).
The buyer had problems in selling it.
The Sydney jewelers said it was worthless and offered the buyer 10 shillings (about US 50 cents).
Five years later it was selling for 50 times that amount.
Charlie’s parcel today could easily be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Boulder opal matrix
There have been a number of attempts by different writers to classify and nomenclify (name) the multitudes of different types of opal.
This is an almost impossible task because, just like people, no two opals are the same.
That’s why the gem has been called ‘the personality stone’.
However, it has to be said that some people do look alike (such as identical twins), and the same is true of opal.
Some stones and patterns do look similar, and attempts have been made to assemble them into pattern categories by drawing on the different shapes of nature as a guide.
It must be said though, that the explanations are only an opinion.
Someone else looking at them may feel they look like something completely different.
But that’s the total fascination of opal.
It is arguably the most unique gemstone in the world – if only because of its tantalizing ambiguity.
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Peter Brusaschi is the author of the CD The ordinary Bloke’s Guide to Opal and has sponsored the Opal Mine site with its opal chat forum and fascinating Opal Encyclopedia, for the past 10 years.
His website and Opal Experts blog are filled with interesting personal stories and lore revolving around opals and Australia.
Peter has been visiting the Australian outback for the past 37 years and is an expert on the subject of opals, Australian outback travel, and has an interest in ancient middle eastern history.
