Nellie Brown

Nell Brown. Photograph courtesy of Leanne Gaisbauer.

Ellen Isobel Charlotte Brown (nee Boules), known as Nell or Nellie, was born on 10 July 1915 in Walgett, New South Wales, the daughter of Jack and Ellen Boules. In 1934 she married Herbert William “Herb” Brown, also of Walgett. They remained in Lightning Ridge for the rest of their lives.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Nellie Brown was one of the few women actively mining for opal at Lightning Ridge. She appears in several photographs and newspaper/magazine articles documenting the life of Ridge miners, often described as “the only woman miner”. This may be a slight exaggeration - but not by much.

Nell was an avid photographer, and we are thankful for her photographs documenting early life at Lightning Ridge.

Nellie passed away on 24 December 1989 at Carinda. She was 74 years old. She is buried at Lightning Ridge Cemetery.

“Mrs. N. Brown, Lightning Ridge’s only woman gouger, is lowered down a shaft on a bosun’s chair. R. J. True winds the windlass”, *Australian Woman’s Weekly*, November 1948. Image courtesy of Leanne Gaisbauer.

Nellie Brown @ Find a Grave.

Article: Research by Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: Australian Women’s Weekly, November 1948; Lightning Flash Newspaper, 25 January 1990.