L is for LIGHTNING RIDGE

 Lightning Ridge is in New South Wales and has a population of around 2600 although there is a fairly transient population in this remote opal mining town.  It is a town where mining of black opal is the reason people live there, but opal mining is  a lot of hard work and many don't find their fortune.  It's not for the faint-hearted!

Lightning Ridge is full of interesting buildings and people who have built very unusual buildings over many years.

 

Amigo's Castle

One of the most amazing buildings is Amigo's Castle, built over 20 years by Mr Stefanato, known as Amigo.  It was open for viewing when we were there but I understand that it is now closed to the public as possibly there was too much attention for him but amazingly it is now Heritage listed.

Bottle House

The Bottle House is another quirky building which was built entirely of bottles, not sure if the contents were consumed entirely by the builder, but it was certainly unique. The Bottle House was originally a miners camp and is now a Museum displaying local artefacts.

There are many tourist drives in Lightning Ridge and we did the Car Door drive which had old car doors brightly painted which guided us to various interesting sites.

Mining site

Corrugated iron church

Stanley the Emu

Stanley is constructed from old car parts and various other bits and pieces by local artist John Murray who also has a great gallery in the main street.

Lightning Ridge is different, weird but well worth a visit and we enjoyed a few days there, but it does get very hot so its best to go in the cooler weather.