The rain had stopped by morning and so everyone was up early preparing for our next leg of the journey to White Cliffs.

As we had about 110km on dirt today with the vans, everyone got busy taping up the vents in the vans to minimise dust intake. Dead Horse Gully was a great campsite and we were somewhat sad to leave but keen to go on to the next leg of our adventure.

We drove south toward Milparinka passing a huge salt lake on the way. Between Milparinka and Packsaddle was Henry Roberts Road which led to White Cliffs, so we turned left and stopped to let down the tyre pressures on car and van before hitting the dirt. The road was in good condition for most of the way much to everyone’s relief as some of the unsealed roads can be a bit of an unknown.

We drove though arid plains, farmlands, large cattle stations. The road surface changed from red dirt to white, back again, rocky to sandy and back. In the distance we could see mountain ranges. We continued over dry creek beds that started to look damp as we got closer to White Cliffs and then looked muddy, as there had obviously been some recent rain in the area.

Clouds loomed ahead adding an interesting element to the landscape. Getting closer to White Cliffs the road turned into red mud – slippery and very messy.

We arrived at White Cliffs and found the caravan park. There was mud over the front of the van and caked all over the mudflaps, pipes, step etc. After setting up we drove around town to get an idea of the place and location of various services etc. White Cliffs is very small with only 1 general store, 1 pub and then basic services like police station and health centre.

We drove out to the opal fields and had a walk around looking at the deep shafts that were everywhere, mullock hills and old mining equipment. The whole area was like Swiss cheese with multiple holes – it looked a bit like a moonscape and reminiscent of Coober Pedy. Many of the residents live in dugouts.

We went back for dinner at the caravan park and planned the next 2 days in White cliffs. Sunset over the caravan park was a typical outback sunset and the clouds were starting to abate.

We awoke to a fine still morning in White Cliffs so Trev decided to put up the drone to get a good aerial overview of the town. The pics were amazing – literally thousands of holes surrounded by mullock heaps – it looked like a real moonscape, or a huge rabbit warren. You could see where some of the miners were currently working – one big open cut area was visible but the majority still work in shafts and tunnels.

Our first stop was the Underground Motel for a self-guided history display and tour of the motel. White Cliffs is Australia’s first opal field. Opals were discovered at White Cliffs on the Moomba Station in 1884 by a group of Kangaroo Hunters. In 1892 there were only 18 men exploring for opal in white cliffs. 2 major finds in 1893 caused an influx of miners -over the next 12 months 800 men arrived and by 1897 the population had grown to 3500. Lack of water and extreme heat led to many of the population living in underground ‘dugouts’ which stay a cool steady temperature all year round.

White Cliffs Opal occurs in pockets below the surface with no indication on the surface of its location. Hence shafts were sunk that were 3m square to a depth of about 4 meters in the early days looking for traces of opal. Once opal was found the miners dug horizontally along the seams – no need to shore up the tunnels as the ground at White Cliffs is very stable. Shafts became much deeper as mechanised method of removing the dirt or ‘mullock’ as it was called made it possible.

The opal at White Cliffs is mainly white/ clear with the colours due to light refraction through the water trapped in spheres of the silica. Opalised fossils and unique opal ‘pineapples’ are also found at White Cliffs.

In 1900 overproduction of cheaper grades of opal caused a drop in overseas prices and together with the harsh conditions led to a slow reduction in the number of miners – by 1908 the town started to decline. By 1914 with many having left for Lightning Ridge and now enlisting in the war effort the population had dropped to just 30.

We left the motel and went to Red Earth Opals to book the underground mine tour which looked great. Graeme the owner of the mine was in the shop, and we had a long discussion with him about modern day opal mining and the success he had with his claims. The tour was not until 3pm so we went to the pub for lunch. The menu was limited due to the delay in the supply trucks, but we had delicious hamburgers with hand cut chips – really tasty.

The tour began with and informative talk by Graeme on the history of opal mining at White Cliffs then detailed information on how opal is formed and the types of opals including opalised fossils that are found at White Cliffs. Graeme had some great examples of these that he had found in his more than 30 years mining at White Cliffs. After the information session we all drove out following Graeme to his mining lease. It was a short but interesting drive through the mullock heaps.

We arrived at Graeme’s mine and after donning hard hats and a safety talk, as well as a demo of how the mullock is bucketed up mechanically from his mine, we headed underground for a tour of his working mine. The tour was extremely interesting and went for 2hrs.

Sunset was again beautiful. Another day in the outback!

Our last day at White Cliffs began slowly. Beryl was keen to see the metal art display by Doug Torpey a local artist, so we walked down to his home where his garden was filled with his metalwork displays as well as many old metal mining relics.

His latest set of artworks was called ‘Little Iron Men’ – sculptures of little people made with railway nails – and there were hundreds of different little men in all different scenarios – really well done. We were disappointed that none were for sale as they would have made great garden ornaments and a good souvenir from White Cliffs.

We did a walk through the town, which was only really one main street. The old post office had been beautifully renovated by a private owner and was without a doubt the best garden and home in town.

I did not go on the walk, and when the gang arrived back to the caravan park, I surprised them with a batch of Portuguese Tarts that I had baked. Trev was in his element as Portuguese Tarts are one of his favourites.

After morning tea, we all went to the opal fields to do some noodling. Dave and Rose did a quick noodle then returned to the caravan to relax.

Trev, Clare and I spent a few hours noodling, coming up with some small pieces of opal keeping us interested – it can be addictive fossicking among the mullock heaps!! We had to be careful to watch where we walked as there were shafts everywhere and we did not want anyone suddenly disappearing.

As it was our final night before leaving the others and heading south, we went for dinner at the pub. They had received deliveries and so now had a full menu. The meals were huge and really delicious – amazing, tasty steaks.

Sunrise on our last morning at White Cliffs was beautiful. We had really had an interesting time in this opal mining town which had its own unique flavour.

Due to a lot of rain over the Darling Paroo area all the roads in and out to Rose Isle Station were closed The Loveday and Wells crew’s best option was to drive as far as Cobar and then head north to Bourke instead of Rose Isle Station. This meant we could all travel together as far as Cobar where Beryl and I would leave for the trip home.