Joe Beckett

Moses Joseph Marchant “Joe” Beckett was born 22 April 1845 in Steeple Claydon, Buckinghamshire, England to parents George Beckett and Susanna Anastasia Marchant. 

Joe Beckett married Catherine McKay (who had been working on Dungalear Station) in 1886. 

Beckett was the innkeeper of the Weetalibah Hotel from 1887. He was an eager rockhound, collecting geological samples and buying stones — likely including opal — from people in the area, even before opal was officially discovered at Lightning Ridge. Joe Beckett may well be The Ridge’s first opal buyer.

In 1902, Beckett organised a syndicate of local station owners who contributed funds to employ a geologist from Sydney to identify a location to dig, and experienced opal prospector Charlie Nettleton to sink a mineshaft on the high ground at McDonald’s Six Mile. The mining endeavour was unsuccessful, and the syndicate disbanded soon after.

The photograph of Joe Beckett

Unfortunately, the only photograph of Joe Beckett that is available is a terribly poor resolution digital scan of a portrait photograph taken some time in the 1890s or 1900s. The image is very difficult to make out, although it is clearly a bearded man facing to the right. The photograph is adorned with a decorative illustrated frame. Using artificial intelligence technology to extrapolate from the low-resolution image, we are able to create the ‘photograph’ shown on this page. Refer the comparison image below. The generated image may not be an accurate representation of Mr. Beckett’s appearance, but it still gives us a window into the past and moves us a little closer to visualising Joe Beckett, beyond a few grey pixels.

Joe Beckett passed away 11 February 1907 in the Walgett District and is buried in Walgett Cemetery.

• Joe Beckett @ 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, pp. 86-87, 153; Lightning Flash Newspaper, 10 May 1979.