The Brady/Walford House

Standing at the corner of Opal and Pandora Streets, the Brady House or the Walford House is one of Lightning Ridge’s earliest surviving buildings. Constructed in 1909, the corrugated iron house was originally built for Phil Brady, an opal buyer from White Cliffs. At a time when most miners lived in tents or rough camps, Brady’s house was the first “real” house in the town.

Added at the rear was a purpose-built room specifically so Brady and other Catholic families could gather for private worship. This made the Walford house the original Catholic meeting place in Lightning Ridge prior to the building of the church. Mass was held in the room whenever a visiting priest could make the journey from Brewarrina.

The Bradys left Lightning Ridge around 1919. By the mid 1920s, the family had settled in Sydney. In later years, the house was occupied by Albert Walford, from whom its present name derives.

Article: Edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: LRHS oral history; A Journey With Colour: A History of Lightning Ridge Opal 1873-2003, Len Cram, 2003, pp. 84, 88-89, 96.