New Chum
New Chum is an early opal field located about 200 yards northeast of the Lightning Ridge Cemetery, east of Old Chum. It was the seventh opal field to be worked at Lightning Ridge, discovered around mid-1907.
According to Fred Bodel, the field’s name came from a prank. Two newcomers from Sydney arrived at the Ridge and, after seeing Bodel’s opal finds at Old Chum, they asked where they might try their luck. Hoping to send them away, Bodel jokingly directed them “up the hill near the box trees.” They followed the advice, sank a shaft, and struck opal straight away. The name stuck.
Depths on the field ranged from 4 to 50 feet, with an average of around 20 to 35 feet. The area is heavily faulted, with no true level, but the opal was of good quality. Bodel, along with Bill and Peter Fry, bought a claim for 30 shillings from Ned Plunkett, complete with a tent, galley and tools. The three worked a patch eight feet wide and twenty feet long along a fault where a sandstone wall came down twelve feet. They recovered two kerosene tins full of opal, which sold for £1,200. Bodel later recalled selling potch and colour from the same claim at £1 per oatmeal bagful.
Other successful claims were worked by Jack and Jim Murray, Bob Adams, George Leslie, Charlie Nebins, and the Fry brothers. According to The Lightning Ridge Book by Stuart Lloyd, total production from New Chum had reached £39,000 by 1967.
Article: Research by Russell Gawthorpe and Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: The Lightning Ridge Book, Stuart Lloyd, 1967, pp. 63-64; Lightning Ridge - The Home of the Black Opal: Unique to the World, Gan Bruce, 1983, p. 77; The Occurrence of Opal at Lightning Ridge and Grawin, with Geological Notes on County Finch, J. W Whiting & R. E. Relph, 1958, p. 9; Discover Opals: Before and Beyond 2000 with Surface Indications, Stephen Aracic, 1996, p. 139.