RIP Barbara McCondra
December 1941 – March 2010
“Eskimo Nell” came to Lightning Ridge in Easter 1983 from a job as a security guard on the Alaska oil fields. She was not a miner but rather an adventurer who loved opal - she was born in America of Czech parents. Through 2009 she fulfilled her dreams of living either in Arizona or on the opal fields. Her grown sons, Ray and Ron, came over from USA and mined with her on occasion.
As a larger-than-life sort of woman, she slotted into the excitement of opal mining with ease. Her first mining partner was her father who brought his other daughter, Marian, to Lightning Ridge to see what all the fuss was about and paid for her first shaft. Barb worked side by side with the best of the men. Her friends helped her build a camp at Pig Hill and the day the girls launched her Purple Dunny is well documented.
For the past 15 years Barb focussed her digging at Yowah but she usually returned to catch up with friends at the Ridge Opal Festival in July. She brought other American “opalholics” for a hands-on experience of life on the opal fields, an imaginative and colourful tour guide as well as an author.
She was an ambassador for the Australian opal industry - she wrote articles for Rock and Gem magazine, the monthly Opal Express in USA and for Metal, Stone and Glass. The Yowah Nut annual newsletter was her creation in 1997 with the help of good friend, Gwen Burney. They started the Yowah Jewellery Design Awards that initiated the Lightning Ridge black opal counterpart. Barbara gave talks to the American Opal Society and was a regular at the Tucson and Quartzite Gem Shows. She is a life member of the shovel-ready Australian Opal Centre at Lightning Ridge.
Barb’s writing style is jaunty and memorable; her sketches and caricatures are unique. Her Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, a Lightning Ridge Cookbook gives another dimension to cooking. Her book-a-zine, Fire in a Brown Paper Bag, about the Queensland opal fields is informative. And there are two more publications ready for the press and two still in her laptop, one a murder mystery.
Last August whilst mining at Yowah, she complained of tummy pains, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in Toowoomba Hospital and Ron flew over to take her back to Ray’s in Dallas. She lost her battle at home in the care of her sons and in the company of her three grandchildren.
Barbara has shared a lot of herself with us - a legend in her own time. One thing is sure - Eskimo Nell’s totem is at her former Pig Hill camp and part of her lurks on the opal fields. Anyone who knew her will agree that she was a one-off in our lives - we remember the vibrancy and generosity of this hard-working woman. She always had time for more.
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