Four Mile, Deep Four Mile, and Shallow Four Mile
The Four Mile fields lie west of Lightning Ridge. Together, these fields offer lot of history from the early 1900s through to later booms in the 1930s and again in the 1970s.
The original Four Mile, now Old Four Mile is located roughly between the Shallow Four Mile and Hawk’s Nest, above Snowy Brown & Tom Urwin’s Shallow Ground. Jim Murray, Jack Austin, Bluey Searson and John Kool, among others, worked there.
A little further on, the Deep Four Mile was found in 1932 by “the Two Ottos”, Otto Schroeder and Otto Marquet, with assistance from the Mines Department. This area sat beyond the Three Mile workings, on the road to the original Four Mile. The field had dry levels at 20 and 40 feet, followed by ten feet of sandstone and then the opal level. Notable claims included those of George Low and Fred Leiske, and Laurie Hart and Bert Spicer. By Lloyd’s estimate, total production reached £48,000.
“The only field I worked on where it was all black opal.”
The Shallow Four Mile is on the eastern fall, roughly one and three quarter miles west of the Three Mile. Stuart Lloyd noted that Charlie Nettleton may have found traces there as early as 1904. The Shallow Four Mile was worked before the more significant Three Mile rush, but results were unimpressive in comparison. In 1933, George and Sid Graham found a parcel of ten good stones and sold them for £200. In the mid-1940s, Jack Mitchell unearthed a parcel, including one large stone he sold to Walgett opal buyer Jimmy Conomos for £60.
Article: Research by Russell Gawthorpe and Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: The Lightning Ridge Book, Stuart Lloyd, 1967, p. 72; Lightning Ridge - The Home of the Black Opal: Unique to the World, Gan Bruce, 1983, p. 87, The Occurrence of Opal at Lightning Ridge and Grawin, with Geological Notes on County Finch, J. W Whiting & R. E. Relph, 1958, p. 10; Discover Opals: Before and Beyond 2000 with Surface Indications, Stephen Aracic, 1996, p. 145.