“Scrub Bull” Edwards
William “Scrub Bull” Edwards was an early opal miner at Lightning Ridge. Not a great deal is known about Edwards, beyond a few mentions in books.
Scrub Bull was described as elderly, small, and thick-set. Edwards worked the Old and New Four Mile opal fields, using rough but effective methods. He was known to smash opal apart with a tomahawk and may not have known much about its value, often selling good stones for cheap to opportunistic buyers. His camp was tattered and messy, and he was said to walk away whenever strangers approached.
“At one time a rogue living at Lightning Ridge, and out noodling, found the Scrub Bull down a 9 ft. shaft. He had climbed down on a stick and it had broken. The rogue made the Scrub Bull hand over all the opal he had in his pockets, before he would help him out. Several were gem stones he had saved for years.”
Edwards had a claim on what would become known as the Frying Pan field between Brown and Urwin’s Shallow Ground and Deep Belahs, somewhere towards Hawk’s Nest. The field was named for his claim, discovered in 1914 and shaped like a frying pan.
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. 34-35; Lightning Ridge - The Home of the Black Opal: Unique to the World, Gan Bruce, 1983, p. 90.