Opal: A bad luck stone or a gift from the gods? No matter what the tales or superstitions, the opal gemstone has compelled many over thousands of years and still continues to enchant today.

Australian Boulder Opal in particular, holds high interest and value as it’s found nowhere else in the world. In most cases, it’s found by small local miners digging their ‘claims’ in outback Queensland, Australia, rather than big mining conglomerates harnessing large chunks of land for intense excavating.

The Queensland site around Opalton was created by an ancient shallow inland sea more than 60 million years ago - a site which is also famed for its unique dinosaur discoveries.

Boulder opal is second only to Australian black opal in value.

But what is boulder opal?

It is formed from sand…or more specifically, dissolved silica from sand, which has found its way into cracks, hollows and crevices over millions of years in ironstone and iron-rich sandstone deposits.

There are two broad types of boulder opal. The first is cut from boulders with an opal face and ironstone acting as a backing. The opal has naturally and permanently joined to the ironstone to form a solid doublet.

The second type is where opal forms as a matrix of precious opal intermittently mixed with the ironstone or sandstone base. Occasionally, opal forms in a cavity left by a root or twig when the sandstone was formed and this is called pipe or wood opal.

The Story of Big Red Mine

The opal types above are an example of what comes from Big Red mine, latterly a family-mined operation, but originally developed in 1890 as one of the first boulder mines in Queensland and Australia.

The Big Red Mine is located 100 kilometres south of the small outback town of Winton, on the cattle station of Fermoy. It's location is marked on the map below.

The mine has two layers of boulder. The top layer, being relatively shallow, was extensively dug until the great drought of 1885, which lasted for 8 years. The drought caused the cessation of mining operations as there was no nearby water. 

From the early 1900’s, the mine at Fermoy was sporadically dug until it was leased by Ross Chapman in 1985 and became a family operation, with his dad Richard and other family members, for 30 years. The mine was coined ‘Big Red’ which is synonymous with red opal, the rarest and most expensive type of opal to be found…and also at the top of the family mining wishlist!

Today, the opal mined from Big Red is being cut by Ross progressively. His intimate background and knowledge of this beautiful stone means he is able to bring the best out of this material.

Ross has been a gemologist for over 60 years and tutors for the Gemmological Association. He is also father of Annie Allan, Founder of Lurlina.