Brian King Opals

Lightning Ridge Bowling Club was the scene of a lucky find for us when we met Brian King.

A brief ‘how ya doing’ somehow turned into being guided about 150km around the opal fields of Grawin, and going down Brian’s working opal mine. He’s 79 years old and has been at ‘The Ridge’ for 40 years.

Nic and Andrew followed Brian into the 3 foot shaft of his mine on a metal ladder, while Hope and Wilfy fossicked in the waste pile on the surface. We saw how the digging and bogging machines scratch the soft sandstone away in search of the colourful opal.

Brian left us with two rules that have guided him well through life. If you can’t say anything good about someone, don’t say anything at all. And, it doesn’t cost you anything to be nice. What a legend.

Watch the video on Vimeo or YouTube to see how it went. Or see our progress on our Google Map.