Jack “Jack Mack” McNamara

John Bertram McNamara, known as “Jack Mack,” was born on a property near Walgett in 1880. By 1883, he was living at Angledool with his family. From an early age, he showed musical talent. Trained by the Walgett nuns, Jack became a talented pianist. His sisters were also musical.

Jack arrived at Lightning Ridge in 1908 and married Violet Evelyne Jewell the following year. They settled at the Three Mile Flat and raised a family of eight children, though they tragically lost a young son in 1925.

Though he mined at Old Dry Rush and elsewhere for many years, Jack’s name is most famously linked with McNamara’s, the opal field he found near in 1928, near the Black Hand. After taking over a shaft originally worked by George Walker, Jack struck a pocket of opal, some stones weighing over 300 carats. One parcel alone fetched £1,600, and he is said to be the first miner on the field to get £5 per carat for gem quality opal. Jack purchased a new piano for the local hall with the proceeds.

Known for his stooped gait, Jack rode his pushbike everywhere.

Jack McNamara died suddenly of a heart attack in the spring of 1935 while preparing his lunch at his camp.

• Jack McNamara @ 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. 110; Lightning Ridge - The Home of the Black Opal: Unique to the World, Gan Bruce, 1983, pp. 40, 51, 69, 92; Walgett Spectator, 18 December 1912, 27 November 1924, 25 July 1925.