What to do while visiting White Cliffs
UNDERGROUND MINE TOUR, BLACKLIGHT TOUR, OPAL CUTTING DEMONSTRATION,FREE FOSSICKING, SELF GUIDED VISTOR TRAIL, SOLAR POWER STATION.
Red Earth Opal UNDERGROUND OPAL MINE TOUR
OPERATES 1st April-1st December daily @ 3pm
With over 30-years experience in Opal Mining, join Graeme Dowton as he takes you on a journey through his working Opal Mine 45 feet underground. Walk down through multiple levels of old & new diggings. Visitors will dive into the rich history of White Cliffs & learn about the hunt for these rainbow gems. The Tour includes demonstrations of mining & equipment used as well as information on how & where to Fossick for these Gems yourself.
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Adults - $35
10-17 years - $20
Under 10 - $10
Children under 3 FREE
* group packages are available via email: redearthopal@bigpond.com
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Approx 2 hours
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45 feet under surface level.
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Access is via a dirt decline with hand rails for support.
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All ages, visitors aged under 15 must be accompanied by an adult over 18 years of age.
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*A hard hat and light is provided for all participants.
*Pets are welcome subject to prior confirmation from Red Earth Opal. There is limited availability for the number of pets permitted each tour and all owners are required to be considerate of their pets behaviour and impact on other tour guests. Pets are to be kept on a lead at all times and any clean up that is required is the pet owners responsibility.
Fossicking “Noodling” for Opal
The most popular pastime in White Cliffs is of course opal mining. This activity is extended to all those who visit from simply fossicking (or as the locals say 'noodling’) through to open cut mining. Visitors are usually encouraged to go noodling in and around the old workings to find stones that were accidentally thrown away by the old timers. Some good finds have been discovered and this encourages even the locals to have a noodle.
When the original miners hunted for opal they were only after the higher quality opal as this was the only opal they could sell. They often discarded the lesser quality opal and small pieces and even occasionally some better quality opal that slipped through. This would then be brought to the surface and dumped on the mullock heaps.
Going after rain certainly helps as much of the soft dusty soil on the heaps continually erodes away exposing new parts of the mullock not previously seen. Raking down some of the older heaps, especially those with grass growing on them, "well aged", can expose some very nice slithers of opal the old timers missed.
Visitor trail
4km self-guided White Cliffs Heritage trail tour. The interpretive signs give fascinating snippets of local history and the tour takes you through all the town’s vantage points – and the colourful array of opal field dwellings. Find map at the caravan park.
In White Cliffs some of the ‘highlights’ include several toilets dotted about the opal fields, have your go at finding them!
White cliffs solar power station
Welcome to one of Australia’s Significant Industrial Heritage Sites. At White Cliffs the first Australian Solar Thermal Power Station was built in 1980.The fourteen large dishes made superheated steam to drive a single phase 37KVA alternator to produce power for the town. In 1997 it was converted to water cooled Photo Voltaic and ceased operation in 2005.In 2006 the site was recognized by Engineering Australia, Heritage Committee as being the Worlds First Commercial Solar Power Station.
Pioneer Children’s Cemetery
The Pioneer Children's Cemetery (1890-92) is a reminder of the harshness of the desert conditions. Although the cemetery only operated for a short time there are five graves of children who died from typhoid and other diseases which were the inevitable byproducts of the heat and the impossibility of maintaining proper sanitary standards in a primitive mining town. The graves of the children are thought to be those of the Richardson family. Alfred Richardson was one of the kangaroo shooting party which first discovered opals at White Cliffs.
