Jack Dominick

John “Jack” Dominick was an early Lightning Ridge opal miner and cutter. Born at Cobar in 1882 to Richard Dominick and Sarah Craig, Jack worked with his father and brother Albert at White Cliffs before cycling to Lightning Ridge in early 1908. Their parents and Albert’s wife Florence arrived soon after. The two brothers originally intended to open a hotel, but instead turned to opal mining. Jack held a Miner's Right by 1909 and was mining throughout the 1910s.

In 1910 he married Mary Jane Leckie of Wilcannia. The couple settled in Morilla Street and had several children, including Bill (b. 1912), Robert Alan (reportedly the first baby born in the Bush Nursing Association facility), Jean Mary, and John Harold.

Jack and Albert discovered the Cleared Line field in 1913 and worked other areas including Bald Hill and the Three Mile. Jack was a skilled opal cutter, opal buyer and a well regarded judge of stones.

He was listed in Regan’s Store Ledger from 1912 to 1921. In the 1920s, Jack acquired Lorne Station, where he lived until 1934.

Jack Dominick died in Baradine in 1974 at the age of 92 and was buried at Coonabarabran.

• Jack Dominick @ Find a Grave.

Article: Research by Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: The Lightning Ridge Book, Stuart Lloyd, 1967, p. 30; Lightning Ridge - The Home of the Black Opal: Unique to the World, Gan Bruce, 1983, pp. 47, 90; They Struck Opal!, E. F. Murphy, 1948, p. 154; Walgett Spectator, 20 July 1907, 14 March 1908, 3 June 1910.