Arthur McLaren
Arthur McLaren, 1953. Photograph: M. Brindle, National Library of Australia, LRHS Collection, The Opal Book, F. Leechman, 1961, et al.
Arthur James McLaren was an opal miner at Lightning Ridge from 1908. He was born in 1878 at Cowra, New South Wales, to parents John and Elizabeth McLaren.
McLaren is quite famous for appearing in a well-published photograph showing him examining an opal in the daylight. The photograph appears in The Opal Book by Frank Leechman (1961), which had a wide distribution. The photograph was taken by photographer W. Brindle in 1953.
In the 1890s, Arthur McLaren was in the White Cliffs area, perhaps giving him some very early exposure to opal mining.
McLaren had quite the varied career. Around the turn of the century he was working on Bootra Station, west of Wilcannia, as well as operating as a mail driver between Wilcannia and Wanaaring. He also spent some time at Broken Hill driving a cab. Later he would hold work as a coach driver, a horse breaker, jockey and a hotel groom (what we would now call a bellhop).
Prior to his time at Lightning Ridge, McLaren was arrested and placed in Goulburn gaol. From his intake records, we can discern he was a labourer, was a follower of the Church of England, had green eyes, was vaccinated for smallpox, had a chunk missing from his right ear and a number of scars.
Arthur McLaren’s intake papers, Goulburn gaol, 1903.
Arthur appears to have been quite the mischievous individual — in 1911, he published a challenge across several newspapers against those who claimed to have seen him drunk and misbehaving towards women, requesting they face him in person or word a letter in reply. It is unknown if any stern correspondence was to follow.
McLaren attempted to enlist in the Air Force in November of 1915, however his application was rejected on medical grounds.
In 1917, not long after McLaren took up residence at Lightning Ridge, his ex-wife pursued him for the desertion of his child, the article giving a detailed description of McLaren in that year:
“Discreet inquiry is requested to trace Arthur McLaren, 35 years of age, 5 feet 9 or 10 inches high, medium build, fair sunburnt complexion, light-brown hair, brown moustache, or may be clean shaved, blue eyes; dressed in a navy-blue sac suit, Panama or brown soft-felt hat, and Romeo boots; a native of Murwillumbah; a coach driver, jockey or labourer. Left Tweed Heads about the end of May last by train, going north. Inquiry at the instance of Maggie McKinnon, care of Mrs. Hayes, St. Clare, Rawson-street, Lidcombe, with a view to institute proceedings against him for child desertion.”
This “discreet inquiry” appears to have had some success, as McLaren was warranted the following year for “failing to make adequate provision for the payment of expenses of and incidental to and immediately succeeding the birth of an infant”. The warrant was dropped.
Arthur McLaren passed away on 25 June 1957 at Walgett and is buried in the Church of England section of Walgett Cemetery.
Signature of Arthur McLaren, sourced from his rejected military application papers, 1915.
Article: Research by Russell Gawthorpe and Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: ‘A Challenge’, The Bathurst Times, 20 January 1911, p. 4; ‘Missing Friends’, New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime, 12 December 1917, iss. 50, p. 533; ‘Deserting Wives and Families, Service, etc.’, New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime, 22 May 1918, iss. 21, p. 241; ‘Deserting Wives and Families, Service, etc.’, New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime, 31 July 1918, iss. 31, p. 344; ‘Personal Pars’, Western Grazier, 27 March 1942, p. 1; ‘Opal miner, Arthur Mclaren, who began mining at Lightning Ridge NSW in 1908, examines a small opal found in 1953’, National Library of Australia, img. no. A1200:L15737; Death certificate, reg. no. 1957/024453, NSW Births Deaths & Marriages.