After being a major tourist attraction in Lightning Ridge for the past 30 years, The Big Opal has been forced to close.

Insurance premiums had reached a huge $36,000 - too much of a burden to bear.

Steve and Lesley Henley bought the Big Opal in October 1986.

They made major renovations including the renowned spiral staircase (113 steps) in 1989 and cutting sheds, a noodling dump and a huge showroom where tourists were entertained by Lesley's infectious humour.

The video room was also added to show historical footage of the Ridge and its characters.

The Big Opal started out as the Opal Bazaar in the early '70s on top of the Three Mile near the Leaning Tree by Peter Crossland.

He then moved it to its present site when he bought Roger Black's camp in 1975.

Roger asked Lindsay Matson to put down a toilet hole but wasn't interested in the opal level as he was mining on the Western Fall. However, when Peter drilled a hole not long after, about 15 feet from the toilet hole he bottomed on opal.

Peter and Kim Wormold changed the name to The Big Opal in the early 1980's.

Talking to Heather Matson, who confirmed that Spectrum Opal Mines also closed because of the high insurance premiums, she said they could not get cover in Australia and they were looking at a minimum of $10,000 and this was three and a half years ago.

The "Bush Museum" also closed five years ago in part due to insurance. This tourist attraction was open for more than 10 years and brought lots of visitors to the Ridge. The amazing thing is that none of these entities had ever had a claim.

Steve is the last of the family to leave the Ridge as he goes to Goulburn and renews a previous occupation running a pub as Steve and Lesley ran the Diggers Rest from 1977 to 1980.