We awoke to a fine still morning in White Cliffs so Trev decided to put up the drone to get a good aerial overview of the town.

The pics were amazing – literally thousands of holes surrounded by mullock heaps – it looked like a real moonscape…. Or a huge rabbit warren….

You could see where some of the miners were currently working – one big open cut area was visible but the majority still work in shafts and tunnels.

Our first stop was the Underground Motel for a self-guided history display and tour of the motel.

White Cliffs is Australia’s first opal field. Opals were discovered at White Cliffs on the Moomba Station in 1884 by a group of Kangaroo Hunters. In 1892 there were only 18 men exploring for opal in white cliffs. 2 major finds in 1893 caused an influx of miners -over the next 12 months 800 men arrived and by 1897 the population had grown to 3500.

Lack of water and extreme heat led to many of the population living in underground “dugouts” which stay a cool steady temperature all year round.

White Cliffs Opal occurs in pockets below the surface with no indication on the surface of its location. Hence shafts were sunk that were 3m square to a depth of about 4 meters in the early days looking for traces of opal. Once opal was found the miners dug horizontally along the seams – no need to shore up the tunnels as the ground at White Cliffs is very stable – like Coober Pedy. Shafts became much deeper as mechanised method of removing the dirt or “mullock” as it was called made it possible.

The opal at White Cliffs is mainly white/ clear with the colours due to light refraction through the water trapped in spheres of the silica. Opalised fossils and unique opal “pineapples” are also found at White Cliffs.

In 1900 overproduction of cheaper grades of opal caused a drop in overseas prices and together with the harsh conditions led to a slow reduction in the number of miners – by 1908 the town started to decline. By 1914 with many having left for Lightening Ridge and now enlisting in the war effort the population had dropped to just 30.

The history of the Underground Motel was captured in the below information display – very interesting story!

The motel was a maze of rooms of varying configurations, but all looked very comfortable. Most of the walls were bondcreted and painted white to lighten areas but some had been left natural just sealed with bondcrete.

There was a large “stairway to heaven” – a steep staircase that led to the surface and an area to look out over the town – great views!

The tour apparently included a “real coffee” in the price – or so we were led to believe – however when we returned to the dining area it was actually just instant coffee – you had to pay extra for “barista” coffee. We had already ordered our coffees and the woman attending the café let us know multiple times she was not good at making them – and indicated a “barista” bloke sitting behind the counter who was constantly in his mobile phone ignoring her….despite the fact she asked him to make the coffees she ended up doing so – it was a bit reminiscent of Fawlty Towers…. The “real” coffee was very ordinary – and we did not pay the extra for it in the end….

We left the motel and went to Red Earth Opals to book the underground mine tour which liked great. Graeme the owner of the mine was in the shop, and we had a long discussion with him about modern day opal mining and the success he had with his claims.

The tour was not til 3pm so we went to the pub for lunch. The menu was limited due to the delay in the supply trucks, but we had delicious hamburgers with hand cut chips – really tasty!!

We had a quick look at Southern Cross Opals before returning to Red Earth Opals for the tour.

The tour began with and informative talk by Graeme on the history of opal mining at White Cliffs then detailed information on how opal is formed and the types of opals including opalised fossils that are found at White Cliffs. Graeme had some great examples of these that he had found in his more than 30 years mining at White Cliffs.

After the information session we all drove out following Graeme to his mining lease. It was a short but interesting drive through the mullock heaps.

We arrived at Graeme’s mine and after donning hard hats and a safety talk – as well as a demo of how the mullock is bucketed up mechanically from his mine, we headed underground for a tour of his working mine.

The tour was extremely interesting and went for 2hrs….

Once out from underground we had planned to go noodling, but the light was fading so we opted for happy hour at the vans…which ended up as dinner as we were still full from the pub hamburgers.

Sunset was again beautiful…. another day in the outback!