White Cliffs

After spending six lovely quiet days in Copi Hollow, we headed back to Broken Hill for three days to top up supplies before heading up to White Cliffs. During the three days in Broken Hill, I was able to catch up with a cousin whom I didn’t know of until recently. It was good to be able to spend a couple of hours with her & find out more of my family ties. The weather was wild, wet & woolly for those three days.

While driving to White Cliffs we noticed that the landscape is now very green, a quite different view from what we saw the last time we drove this way in 2006; then it was very dry & farmers were driving their cattle/sheep along the roadside in order to find feed for them. Some farmers were even taking them up to 50kms away to find greener pastures. This year however, is quite different, significant rains across NSW/Qld have made a huge difference to the landscape. As we got closer to White Cliffs a sign said, ‘White Cliffs Opal Field: The First and Friendliest’.

White Cliffs is in a semi-arid area of Far Western NSW (approx 100km north of Wilcannia)-as such you will find stands of eucalypts, mulga, leopardwoods (quite a variety of trees in fact but not as in forests as you would find in coastal areas); there is a variety of low shrubs & grasses. In White Cliffs itself, much regeneration work has been done to rectify some of the mining practices of the past; so many trees were cut down to provide materials for housing and shoring up mine shafts. White Cliffs is known as Australia’s first commercial opal field. It’s documented that opal was found as early as 1884 by four kangaroo shooters. The town itself is small but spread out. From the air one can see a lot of white coloured craters which has been described as a ‘lunar landscape’. It has been estimated that at the height of mining activities, 50,000 holes were dug; this is evident from the air.

White Cliffs has a summer where daytime temperatures can reach 44-46oC for days on end, in order to escape the oppressive heat; miner’s homes are frequently built underground, often in the very mines themselves. These homes are known as ‘dugouts’ having been dug deep into the hillsides. These dug-outs can have all the conveniences of any modern home but are environmentally friendly, little heating or cooling is required with an all round temperature being around 22oC. With a population of approx 210, (which apparently is a floating population), there are about 140 dug-outs while the remainder of residences live above ground.

After a morning walk around town, we got to see the Solar Power Station which incidentally, was the first commercial solar power station in the world. Originally the Power Station was established as an experimental facility by Australian National University researchers. It powered the local hospital, school, post office & twelve residences. The solar plant is now closed but has earned a national award that will see it preserved as a piece of alternative energy heritage. The White Cliffs Power Station is nationally recognised as an iconic engineering project equal in status to the Snowy Mountains Scheme, the Sydney Harbour Bridge & the Parkes Radio Telescope.

A walk through the Pioneer Cemetery demonstrates the conditions that families endured in the harshness out here. Many young children died from Dysentery, Typhoid & Diphtheria. The youngest child being only 12hours old with the average life of a child was under 4 years of age. Later in the day we drove around some of the mines & did some fossicking of our own. Over the four days we manage to find a few small pieces of opal, nothing that will make us famous or rich though. We did however have a lot of fun fossicking. White Cliffs is the home to the “Opal Pineapple”; it is the only opal field where these collector’s pieces of mineral are found.

While in White Cliffs we were able to catch up with the daughter & family of my cousin whom we met earlier in Broken Hill. It was good to spend some time with them to reminisce over past family members. Peter, Joanne & Kaija their daughter live in a lovely dugout which they built themselves, next door is their first dugout, now a commercial tourist venue, PJ’s Underground B&B.

Just a quick note; while we lived in Aberfoyle Park, 20k from the city centre, we weren’t able to get ADSL or a good wireless broadband connection, here out in the middle of nowhere we were getting an excellent connection, best ever wireless performance; go figure!!

Click on the link below to view some photos of White Cliffs.


http://picasaweb.google.com/108879761974384702036/WhiteCliffsNSW?feat=directlink