Carmel, in England, requested information on the discovery of the opal fields at White Cliffs by Hooley and Richardson. Carmel is a descendant of the George J. Hooley mentioned and his wife Edith nee Richardson. I thought the information might also be of interest to others. Since it is a long article I have split it into two parts. Also, since it is a long article, PLEASE DELETE THE ARTICLE FROM ANY REPLIES. The Sydney Mail April 14 1894. THE TOURIST Visit to White Cliffs Opal Mines. ------------------------------ The Township of Opalton. ------------------------------- Sales of Opals Exceed £40,000. ------------------------------ By "The Tourist". ------------------------------- On my arrival at Wilcannia, after a trip in the steamer South Australian from Bourke down the Darling, a distance of some 500 miles, I found the chief topic of conversation to be about the splendid discoveries of gems in the form of lovely opals at White Cliffs, specimens of which were freely shown by the many residents. Some of those shown to me were of thick pieces of pure opal of the most beautiful harlequin, and various other lovely tints of indescribable beauty. Some of them resembled magnificent Australian sunsets in minature form, and looked as if they had been photographed in colours from nature in the very highest art of reproduction, full of brilliant colours of ever-changing and fascinating hue, fascinating to all. I determined to visit the field, going by Cobb's coach. We reached Opalton, as I shall now call the township of the White Cliffs' field, about 8pm, after a drive of about 60 miles. There was the usual crowd congregated to meet the coach, probably, however, this evening larger than usual, owing to the visit of the renowned labour agitators, Messrs. Sleath and Ferguson. There are two fair-sized hotels. The one at which I put up is kept by Mr Burgess, the other by Mr Johnston. They have a very peculiar method of delivering letters here. On the arrival of the mail it takes about half an hour to sort the letters, after which the postal official opens the office door and calls out in a sonorous voice the names of those to whom the letters just received are addressed. If the owner of the letter is there, he calls out, "Here!" and the letter is handed to him. I was informed that the idea was to save time, instead of having to search the various packets of letters through and through for each caller. I may as well here state that the opal fields are on one of the largest station properties in the colony, known as Moomba, which comprises four Pastoral Holdings, containing an area of 1,830,000 acres. The assessed rental value is 1 12-100d per acre, which amounts to £5,054 - 4s - 2d annually. In 1890, 7000 bales of wool were taken off these holdings.The proprietors are residents of Adelaide and Melbourne. Mr W. Hogarth is the general manager. The country for miles around the opal country is covered with water-worn boulders of varying sizes, and these, with other indications such as sea shells, hundreds of which I saw, some being opalised, leave no doubt that an inland salt water sea or lake covered the whole of this country at no very remote date. There are two large tanks with excellent catchments about three miles from Opalton. These were excavated by the owners of Moomba. Arrangements have since been made that the townfolk have the use of these. One is used for domestic purposes, the other for watering stock. The government are excavating a large tank in the township proper. The present population of the township and workings is about 700 persons. The field was first discovered to contain the precious opal in 1889 by two kangaroo hunters named J.Hooley and [? A.] Richardson in the following strange manner. They were plying their hunting avocation and had fired at and wounded a kangaroo, which however, though hurt, bounded onward at so great a speed that the hunter lost sight of him, and endeavoured to track him by the blood stains on the grass and stones over which he had passed. During this search Mr Hooley took up a piece of stone, showing as he thought blood upon it, but was surprised to find it was the red fire of an opal stone of a very brilliant hue. The finders, having had some experience at the opal mines in Queensland, took the stone to Wilcannia, and submitted it for examination to the local jeweller and lapidary, who pronounced it to be an opal of the first quality. Acting upon ths expert's opinion, they forthwith returned to the White Cliffs and, selecting a site, pegged out two 80-acre blocks, one of which they leased; the other they held under mineral license. They then prospected the ground with success, and discovered within a foot of the surface many splendid stones rich in opal. They continued working with profitable results for some three years. Then they sold a share to [?Clodston] and Turner. and some time after, sold the other portion to an opal buyer from Melbourne. The property was subsequently put into a syndicate, and is now known as the White Cliffs Opal Mining Company.The mines are being worked by tributors, and also by wage men. By this time the wealth of this field was being freely spoken of at Broken Hill, Silverton, and other mining centres in the Western district, with the result that all classes of people began to flock there, and have continued to do so to the present time.Business people then went to work and erected temporary buildings of iron and canvas. The first storekeepers to open were Johnston and Patterson. S.Whitfield opened the first butcher's shop. Now there are two hotels, two butchers, two bakers, any number of cooldrink shops, and billiard saloons, besides a barber's shop, a dressmaker's, wheelwright and blacksmith's, two newsagents for the sale of papers, &c. A good public hall has been erected by subscriptions at a cost of £160. The first service was held in it on the Sunday following our arrival by the Rev. Mr. Bradshaw , assisted by the Rev. Mr Thomas. The hall was comfortably filled, and a hearty service resulted, this being the first ever held in Opalton. Then they have a cricket club with a turf-pitched ground, a racing club, &c. There are two members of the police here, so that law and order are fairly well carried out. The principal workings are carried on by the Oriental Mining Company, who owns leases 5,6,7,8, which are now known as the Wilcannia Blocks. Syndicates under the management of Mr. E. F. Murphy, who employs about 80 men as tributers at 50 per cent rates or half share rates. I may mention that there are also extensive workings carried on at a new find some twelve miles distant, on the west side of the Mount Brown Road, the Prospectus claim, which is owned by Messrs. LLoyd and Pierce. Claims here are also being worked by Hall and Davis, a party of Chinamen, Jenkins and party, Sidman and Party, Collins and Emmett, and on the east side, eight miles from Opalton, claims are being worked by Harry Pretty, Barclay Brothers, and several others, all of whom report to be doing fairly well. Here the depth of sinking varies from 3ft to 7ft. The two proprietors sold £300 worth of opal, the result of five month's work. All the other country right up to the township is being prospected and worked. The field is one of vast extent, and there is enough work in sight for many years, carrying a large population. The local baths are a short distance from the hotel, and consist of a canvas enclosure; within are three compartments, separated by the same material, in each of which is a shower-bath. The water is obtained from a small dam owned by the proprietor. When you want a bath you whistle, or call out "Bath, oh!" and a woman will go and get you two buckets of water; you provide your own towel; you pour the water in the bath, then haul it up to what height you chose, hang your clothes upon the floor, have your bath, "which rough as it is is appreciated," pay 6d and take your departure. On the field the people, I am pleased to record, are very industrious, and appear to have a love for the work. Opal-getting is very exciting. There are very large quantities of opals found, but over 90 percent of them are of no commercial value, having no fire or life in them, and are known locally as potch opals. The others range in value from £3 per ounce to £50, according to beauty of colouring and thickness and solidity of body. Opals are found in layers or seams of varying thickness. In these seams everything that the opal silica has come in contact with has become more or less opalised. For instance, I saw large pieces of fossilised wood with many flaws and crevices all opalised, showing in some cases remarkable freaks of nature, with most lovely and indescribable varying hues. Then again, I saw shells which had become opalised throughout; again pieces of sandstone had at various clevages very thin covering of iridescent silica, which upon being held in various lights displayed charming rainbow tints, so that, in fact, I suppose any metal of substance that had been subjected to the operation, during the opalisation period, would have been successfully converted,or else coated more or less with rich colours, which alone are given off by the opals of this great field. The opals are sent chiefly to Melbourne. Buyers come from there periodically, and frequently purchase thousands of pounds worth at a visit. Mr. Silberfield was there buying during my stay; he purchased about £3,000 worth. It has since been reported that there is a great fall in the price of these gems, owing to the small sales, arising no doubt chiefly from the depression. At any rate the prices the buyers give on the field leave them a vast margin for either profit or loss as the case may be. It is a wonder that more buyers do not visit Opalton. Sydney is wholly unrepresented. I may here mention that since my return to Sydney I had an interview with Messrs. S. Hoffnung and Co., which I think will result in a representative from this extensive firms competing with the Melbourne firm ere long. The chief method of mining adopted in this field is to sink a pit or a series of pits - similar in appearance to those used in tanneries in which the liquor process is used - 10 to 12 feet in length, 8 to 10 feet in width. The gem is found generally from within a few inches of the surface to 12 feet. Some have, however, gone down to 45 feet, with profitable results.