The Graham Brothers
George Graham. Photograph courtesy of Graeme Anderson.
Sid & George Graham were timbermen from New Zealand who found their way to Lightning Ridge. The brothers were born on the south island and left for Tasmania during the influenza epidemic in 1919. They found the osmiridium deposit (associated with platinum and used in fountain pen nibs) southwest of Hobart and sold to Mount Lyell for their nestegg to come to the mainland. Herb Brown said they were in Angledool town by 1927.
Dr. Archie Kalokerinos' autobiography tells of the Grahams' amazing journey to “the heart of the world's opal” by camel with an Aboriginal couple, circa 1924. In 1964, the brothers wanted desparately to return to Coober Pedy with Archie but the arrangement was not to be.
George Graham is credited with starting an opal rush in 1949 after finding £500 worth of opal in a week.
“Graham Brothers: (George and Sid). New Zealanders. Consistently successful opal miners over a long period. Came from Osmeridium mining in Tasmania in 1927 to Lightning Ridge. After a few months, went by horse and sulky to the Gulf country N. Queensland prospecting. Returned to Lightning Ridge in 1929. For 15 years spent six months of each year opalling at Lightning Ridge and six months ringbarking in Queensland.”
Sid and George were famous for their “verandah hospitality” and are well remembered by many who call in on their way past the Morilla Street cottage.
Sid and George Graham in Solitary Gems: Sid and George - Filmed at the opal fields of Lightning Ridge.
Transcript: God’s little acre, they call it. I ought to be giving him a hand, by the way. But two brothers, living together, mate, it’s not natural, and it causes some awful blues. We never did agree in our lives, it’s a funny thing, but that is a fact. Two brothers living together for practically a lifetime, it takes a bit of doin’. We’ve survived it so far, and neither of us have murdered yet, but we’ve been lucky, both of us.
Both were grave diggers at the Lightning Ridge Cemetery.
Sid died in 1969 and George in 1975. Both are buried at Lightning Ridge Cemetery.
Article: Research by Leisa Carney, written by Barbara Moritz, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: ‘Opal Find Starts Rush’, The Sun, 29 May 1949, p. 3; D. Hill, ‘Sid and George’, The Solitary Ones, Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1950s; The Lightning Ridge Book, Stuart Lloyd, 1967, p. 43; Lightning Flash Newspaper, 18 December 1975, 1 January 1976; Lightning Ridge - The Home of the Black Opal: Unique to the World, Gan Bruce, 1983, pp. 72, 75, 77.