Nettleton Postal Seal

In the late 1970s to early 1980s, a fossicker or “specker” found a gold-coloured object in a gully at the Three Mile Flat opal field, the location of the Nettleton settlement in the first decades of the 20th century.

The object was discovered to be a brass postal seal, of the type used to seal envelopes with wax. The reversed inscription on the seal read “Nettleton F. B., N. S. W” surrounding the crown of either King Edward VII or King George V, depending on the year the seal was produced. When stamped into molten wax, the result is as shown in the Lightning Ridge Historical Society banner at the top of the page!

Nettleton, a small town in its own right, had a post office branch which was run for the most part by Watty Vause, Postmaster. It would have a daily mail run, joining up with the coach services that would take mail from all of the nearby post offices.

There are not a lot of tangible items remaining from the Nettleton settlement, apart from the old coach house building (now a private residence) and a lot of paperwork preserved in local and government archives documenting the rise and fall of commerce at Nettleton. The brass postal seal is one of the few items that can be held in the hand, a tangible reminder of the settlement.

Article: Edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz.