Big Opal Underground Mine Tour — Attraction in Lightning Ridge

A Must-Do Experience in Lightning Ridge!

We absolutely loved the Big Opal Underground Mine Tour! Stephen was a fantastic host, genuinely passionate and incredibly knowledgeable about the history of Lightning Ridge, the challenges miners face under current government restrictions, and what life is really like working underground. His insights added so much depth to the experience.

The tour is self-guided, which made it really interactive and fun, especially exploring with torches. To our delight, we even found a small piece of opal—my son was over the moon! The mine feels authentic and not overly commercialized, which we really appreciated. It had a personal touch that made it stand out from some of the other tours in town.

Stephen also has a lovely range of opals for sale that he mined himself, and they were very reasonably priced, no pressure, just a genuine offering from someone who clearly loves what he does.

Just a heads-up, the spiral staircase into the mine goes down quite a bit, so take your time coming back up. But it’s well worth it for the experience.

Highly recommend this tour if you want something real, informative,...

Unfortunately we came here when it was apparently 'under construction', so we didnt get a chance to experience what it had to offer. The shopkeeper here had a pretty decent assortment of opal and souvenirs for sale though, as well as a small field of rocks for us to scavenge around and pick a piece we want for a small price, im guessing probably because there’s like a 0.0001% of opal in every rock or something. There was a wasp following us around when we were inside so I was quite terrified of being caught off guard in case it had decided to come stab me in the bum. Nothing too exciting otherwise...

A wonderful experience with informative discussions on mining, Lightning Ridge and local history with the owner; a lovely gentleman. The underground mine tour was brilliant, seeing a working mine that is currently in use, having the opportunity to explore at our own pace was nice and quiet which allowed us to absorb the mine fully. It was spacious and had plenty of fresh air, not at all like mines I have visted before that were cramped and musty.

I highly recommend this as a must see at Lightning Ridge. 5 stars...