Bill Younger

William Montague “Bill” Younger was born in 1873 at St Leonards, New South Wales, to Charles Daniel Younger and Rebecca Bloodworth.

Younger held a Miner’s Right at Lightning Ridge by 1909. In May 1909 he and George Cormie purchased Walter Vause’s billiard room in the Old Town. In January 1910 they built a new billiard room in the New Town opposite the hotel. In April 1914 Frank Elliott took over the billiard room.

Younger also traded as a newsagent at the Ridge as of 1912, and is listed as proprietor of a billiard saloon in 1914.

In later years he worked on northern tin fields, Ion Idriess records meeting him again in Far North Queensland. Younger moved around Far North Queensland quite a bit in later life, eventually settling in Cairns.

Bill Younger died at Cairns on 15 February 1961, aged 88, and was buried there.

Signature of Bill Younger, sourced from correspondence relating to the closure of the Nettleton settlement, 1912.

Bill Younger @ Find a Grave.

Article: Research by Russell Gawthorpe and Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: Walgett Spectator, 8 May 1909, 24 January 1910, 16 April 1914; Sands Directories: Sydney and New South Wales, 1912, 1914; Lightning Ridge: The Land of Black Opals, Ion L. Idriess, 1940; A Journey With Colour: A History of Lightning Ridge Opal 1873-2003, Len Cram, 2003, pp. 90, 112.