Dolly Frazer
Dolly Frazer with Jack McNicol, discoverer of the Pandora Stone as photographed in 1928 by Albert “Possum” Green. (Charles Sturt University Regional Archives, Albert “Possum” Green Photograph Collection, RW1247.)
Dorothy “Dolly” Frazer (nee Wilson) was a long-time Lightning Ridge resident and one of the earliest women to be involved in opal cutting. She was the wife of Harold Frazer, a returned First World War soldier and highly regarded opal cutter.
Born in 1894 in Paddington, England, Dolly came to Australia after marrying Harold during the war. Dolly’s sister Poppy Wilson also came out from the UK and spent extended periods with the couple. The two women were close throughout their lives, inseparable.
In 1923, Dolly and Poppy made costumes for the Merrymakers performance, a community theatre production staged to raise funds for the Bush Nursing Association. The remnants of the fabric were given to local resident Fran Reynolds Rathbone for quilting and reuse..
In 1928, Jack McNicol found the Pandora stone on the Angledool opal field. The stone was entrusted to Harold and Dolly to cut and polish, with Dolly doing most of the work!
Dolly signed the 1929 Western Lands petition advocating for the establishment of a public park in Lightning Ridge, listing her occupation as "domestic." She and Harold, along with Poppy and her husband Joe Willis later managed the Imperial Hotel between 1939 and 1941.
By the 1940s, both couples had relocated to the Newcastle area and later settled in Glebe. Dolly was still living in Sydney in 1966, according to Stuart Lloyd, and died in 1986. Dolly is buried in the Lightning Ridge Cemetery.
Signature of Dolly Frazer, sourced from the 1929 petition for a public park at Lightning Ridge.
Article: Research by Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: Walgett Spectator, 13 September 1923; ‘The Only One of her Kind - She Cuts Opals - Yorkshire Lass - Task that Thrills’, Daily Standard, 18 June 1935, p. 4; The Opal Book, Frank Leechman, 1961, p. 204; The Lightning Ridge Book, Stuart Lloyd, 1967, pp. 28, 41.