Mrs. Ann Ryan
“There are very few people who know that it was a woman, Mrs Ryan, who was the first person to discover black opal at Lightning Ridge.”
Ann Ryan (left) with family. Photograph courtesy of Catherine Isabella (Ryan) & Donald Denchar Gunn and their descendants.
Mrs. Ann Ryan was one of the first people to find black opal at Lightning Ridge, and a woman instrumental in the initial identification, prospecting and sale of the gemstone.
For over a century, she has only ever been referred to as “Mrs. Ryan” by Landers, Lloyd, Leechman, Cram, Bruce and other authors. It was not until late 2024 that Historical Society researchers were able to locate the missing link to connect the mysterious “Mrs. Ryan” with her true identity — Ann Ryan — and to inform Ann’s living descendants of their ancestor’s contribution to opal mining history.
Ann is often described as the "wife of boundary rider Bill Ryan", but this detail is incorrect. Ann Ryan was married to Patrick Rowland Ryan until his death in 1898, a few years before the beginning of the opal rush at Lightning Ridge. At the turn of the century, Ann Ryan already had a child with her second partner, Arthur Clayton.
Mrs. Ryan and her partner lived below the Six Mile, near the Lightning Ridge Tank (later Beckett's Tank). It is not known if Arthur Clayton worked as a boundary rider, but if so it is likely they also would have spent time at the Nebea Hut (near Nebea/Eulan Tank) as reported by many authors.
“Though Charlie Nettleton, now blind, is regarded as the discoverer of Lightning Ridge opal field, he always gave he credit to a woman. Mrs. Ryan, wife of a boundary rider, used frequently to take her family for outings about her lonely little home and during these she picked up what she thought were pretty black stones.”
Prior to Charlie Nettleton’s arrival in 1902, Ann Ryan had accumulated a collection of black opal pieces that she had found on the ground in the southern part of Angledool Station, on the Nebea Ridges.
When Nettleton came to the area looking for a rumoured gold reef on Bangate Station, he met Mrs. Ryan in Angledool Town, where she told him of the stones she had found.
“Mrs. Bill Ryan went to Angledool town - probably her husband took her and the kids for a trip to see the world and do some shopping. There it was that she (apparently while Bill Ryan was off on some other business) met a man, a miner who had come up from Bathurst, Where he had been digging for gold.”
Balonne Beacon, 24 March 1949, p. 4.
She showed the stones to Nettleton, and gave a vague account of where she had found them. This lead Nettleton to begin prospecting towards the Six Mile ridge. Not long after, Joe Beckett's syndicate was formed, employing Nettleton with the intention of mining the area more methodically.
Ann Ryan's contribution to the history of opal mining at Lightning Ridge is significant as her opal discovery encouraged Charlie Nettleton to begin prospecting. Ryan is also the first woman recorded as finding opal on the Lightning Ridge fields.
Ann and Patrick Ryan's son, Patrick Rowland Ryan (II) was a rural landholder in the area, leasing a large patch of land south-west of the New Town which he held in 1907. After that time, the Ryan descendants had moved closer to town, to an area near the rodeo grounds and speedway now known as Ryan's Flat, where Ryan's Tank is also located.
Ann Ryan’s mark on her marriage certificate to Patrick Rowland Ryan. Ann Ryan could not read or write, Patrick wrote her name for her.
Article: Research by Leisa Carney and Russell Gawthorpe, 2024-2025. Sources: Beautiful Lightning Ridge and History, Len Cram, 1996; The Lightning Ridge Book, Stuart Lloyd, 1967, p.137; J. Drayton, ‘Real Opals in the Ring’, Smith’s Weekly, 26 May 1923, p. 29; J. Landers, ‘Black Opal - Famous Lightning Ridge Gems’, Sydney Morning Herald, 14 July 1928, p. 11; Marriage certificate, Australian Marriage Index, ref. 3767/1882; ‘Obituary’, Balonne Beacon, 24 March 1949, p. 4; An Old Chum Remembers, John Landers, 1923, p. 3; Beautiful Lightning Ridge: Home of the World Famous Black Opal, Len Cram, 1991; ‘Court of the Flame Queen’, The Sun, 15 June 1935, p. 8; A Journey with Colour: A History of Lightning Ridge Opal, Len Cram, 2003; New South Wales Department of Lands map, 1907.