Nine Mile
Nine Mile is an opal field located north of Lightning Ridge, just east of the Walgett-Angledool Road. It was named for its distance from Sim’s Hill. The field was discovered in 1906, when workers were collecting gravel to repair a boggy stretch of the highway.
The Kite Brothers on the Nine Mile.
While digging just a foot beneath the surface, Harold Gallegos reportedly broke open a bright green nobby. He, along with George and Harry Smith, pegged the claim and quietly returned after the road work had ended. It took two more years to uncover a valuable patch. Gallegos and the Smith brothers sold a parcel of 900 stones for £1,000, establishing the Nine Mile as a productive field.
Mining depths ranged from the surface to around 40 feet, with iron-stained red or brick-coloured opal dirt and levels at 20 to 28 feet. Good black opal was common, round nobbies, though much potch was also present. According to The Lightning Ridge Book by Stuart Lloyd, production had reached £122,700 by 1967.
The field became busy by 1908, with a small town developing; a boarding house run by Tom Urwin and various shops and commercial huts. Mrs. Thorley worked there as an opal cutter into the 1930s.
Among the best-known claims were those of Mick O’Connor, Tom McNeil, Billy Kite, Andy Bastian, George Walker, Jack Burrows, and “Big” Jim Denis. Denis sold 900 gem stones from the field for £1 each in 1920. Percy James noodled a £250 stone from the Smiths’ old dump, and George Smith returned in 1930 with three nephews to work the field again, with some success.
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. 62-63; Lightning Ridge - The Home of the Black Opal: Unique to the World, Gan Bruce, 1983, p. 75; The Occurrence of Opal at Lightning Ridge and Grawin, with Geological Notes on County Finch, J. W Whiting & R. E. Relph, 1958, p. 10; Discover Opals: Before and Beyond 2000 with Surface Indications, Stephen Aracic, 1996, p. 151.